The Firebirds
by OSTOCOM
Summary: Mulder discovers a legend which could change the universe...and starts his journey home to Scully. A trilogy following up from mid-season 8.
1. The Firebirds

THE X-FILES "The Firebirds" By Sketchy Sunshine (OSTOCOM member)  
  
Rating: No clue...PG, I guess  
  
Classification: Season 8, Mulder Return, adventure  
  
Spoilers: basically everything up to "Within"/"Without"  
  
Summary: Mulder discovers a legend which could change the universe...and starts his journey home to Scully.  
  
Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully and Doggy-Boy and Skinman and whoever and whatever else that you already know of don't belong to me (darn it all...) they belong to CC and C (Chris Carter and Crew ;)) HOWEVER...most other characters in this story belong to me, particularly Yallus, Slander and Tho, and all other alien names, species and ships are ALLLLLL mine!!! :D Ask if you want them, and I'll be happy to lend them! :)  
  
Author's Notes: I usually don't do fanfic that directly correlates with the show, but this idea stuck like glue to my brain and wouldn't go away! I wish I could draw it all, though! :) This story definitely goes into crazy places, but crazy places are a good thing...most of the time...Scully and her crew are not in this one yet, but hopefully the second part I have swimming around in my head will come into form soon and she'll be in that one! But read this one first!!! :)  
  
On with the show!!!  
  
....................THE FIREBIRDS......................  
  
He ran doggedly down the twisting passage, his bare feet tingling with the feel of the ice rust on the ground. Smoke twisted into frightening shadows that he dodged and ran from, not caring whether they were products of his terrified imagination or his real pursuers. He gave a quick glance behind himself, but saw only darkness. This seemed to spur him on all the more, and he continued to run until he reached the door at the end of the passage. Throwing himself inside, he punched the doorlock and a great metal slab filled the doorway, shutting him in darkness.  
  
Mulder felt around the darkness with trembling hands until he found a corner, and he crawled into the corner and curled himself into a protective ball. Gasping, sobbing, he rocked slowly and rubbed his hands against his arms to keep himself warm. He shut his eyes tightly, knowing that what he saw with his eyes open was no different than what he saw with his eyes closed.  
  
He touched the scars on his face, chest, wrists, neck, and ground his teeth with a bitter anger. He was safe for now...but for how long? It had been a miracle enough that he had been able to overpower his guard and get away, but in a place like this, one miracle was one too many.  
  
Mulder felt himself beginning to topple over with exhaustion, and he placed his hand against the ice-cold wall to steady himself. He shuddered with every breath, too terrified to move, knowing that his guard would tell the head officer what had happened and then Mulder would be back in the darkbox...after more drillings...  
  
...When he felt warmth.  
  
He became aware of a light outside of his closed eyelids. Opening them, confused and slightly afraid, he was met with an amazing sight.  
  
The wall was glowing. Engraved into the black wall was a picture of a bird...a majestic, powerful bird, with a crest crowning its head and a scar over its eye. Its wings spouted flames and the wings were extended to the left. The engraving glowed with an unnatural blue light that flickered and danced within. His hand was placed over the engraving, and he also realized with wonder that there was light on his hand as well...tiny circles of blue light danced wildly across his skin like fireflies in a jar.  
  
Mulder felt attracted to the firebird and its warm, blue glow; and he stared at it with intense fascination. It seemed that the blue firebird would befriend him, protect him from the neverending danger that surrounded him. He lifted his hand from the engraving, and it continued to glow, while the blue circles still bounced across his hand.  
  
He began to wonder if there was anything else carved into this strange wall. He brushed away a thin layer of rust ice to get to the smooth surface underneath. He could feel other engravings in the metal, but they did not glow at his touch. His heartbeat rose with anticipation and he felt his limbs gaining strength from some unknown source. This was something magical, mysterious, entirely different from everything else in this place.  
  
Finally, Mulder came to another engraving that responded to his touch. It was the same blue firebird, only this time it was laying on the ground, wounded, the grand flames from its wings now small and dying. He looked back at his hand, and this time saw that some triangles of blue light had joined the circles and were also gliding across his skin. Mulder felt a pain in his stomach to see the blue firebird lying broken, and he wondered why he was reacting so strongly...  
  
Now even more anxious than before, Mulder worked to clear the entire rust ice layer off of the wall, stretching his arm up to try and reach the ceiling. In doing so, he caused another engraving to glow.  
  
It was the same blue firebird, only now it was standing tall and proud, blue flames shooting brilliantly from its feathers, its gaze fixed upon something that Mulder could not see. Looking back at his hand a third time, he saw blue lines as well as the circles and triangles.  
  
Upon removing his hand, the wall reacted again. He heard a low humming coming from under his feet and jolting his nerves. The humming reached the wall, and Mulder stepped back in fear.  
  
A brilliant glow snaked up through the engravings, illuminating the entire black room. When the room was lighted, Mulder could completely see all of the engravings.  
  
The wall was in fact an engraved mural, depicting four different scenes. The first one contained the first blue firebird he had found. There was also a second firebird...this one looking slightly different from the first, and colored red instead of blue. Both firebirds had their wings extended over a very small firebird, this one a purplish color, and surrounded in a brilliant flame.  
  
Mulder stared at the picture for a long time, feeling strange, hot sensations circulate through his body. It took him awhile before he was able to tear his gaze away from the three firebirds and see the rest of the mural.  
  
The second image frightened Mulder somewhat...the engraving of the blue firebird lying wounded was because it was underneath a fearsome dragon, claws outstretched and teeth bared, its eyes glowing an angry light that made Mulder's skin prick. The red firebird was bravely fighting off the dragon, talons scratching at its eyes. The small, purple firebird stood quietly behind the red one...it seemed that the red firebird was trying to save the blue firebird and protect the purple one at the same time.  
  
Mulder gazed over the rest of the engraving...right down the middle of the wall was a strip with a written message, but he could not identify the alphabet...it was certainly not human. In the middle of the strip was a glowing white orb, like a pearl in the middle of a magnificent tapestry.  
  
Above the strip of words he saw more pictures...and became more curious with everything he saw. There was an image of two unicorns fiercely battling. One of the unicorns was small and white, with a brown mane and tail. The other was a much larger, black unicorn. It had three horns instead of one, its mane and tail were made of black flames, and its eyes glowed a sinister green. The black unicorn seemed to be winning against the white one.  
  
The next image showed the purple firebird again, only this time it was much bigger. It had its wings spread over an army of the white unicorns, and a fine purple dust seemed to be spreading out over the entire army.  
  
The final picture made Mulder feel entirely different...it filled his body with a charge of energy, and it seemed to banish the ice-cold around him. He saw the dragon lying dead on the ground, with the purple firebird standing triumphant over it, yelling a victory cry. The blue and red firebirds were standing on either side of the purple one, heads high with pride. In the background, the army of white unicorns was chasing away the army of black unicorns.  
  
Mulder stepped back and gazed at the mural in all its glory, marveling at the perfect, glowing engravings in the obsidian metal. The pictures told a story, a story he could not understand but longed to learn. The humming was persistent and changed pitch sometimes, but it all just added to the mystery presented before him.  
  
Mulder felt himself drawn to the wall again...only this time it was to the glowing white orb in the center of the mural. Slowly, hesitantly, like a moth daring to incinerate itself upon a flame, Mulder reached out a shaking hand towards the orb. Tensing his body, he placed his palm firmly over the glowing white surface.  
  
It seemed that the entire world reacted to this simple touch. The humming changed pitch and was joined by what sounded like an engine coming to life. Mulder felt the vibrations in his nerves grow stronger and quicker. And on his hand, the tiny shapes of light that had been moving wildly suddenly came together and locked into place as a symbol.  
  
Mulder jumped back, startled, as the glowing wall seemed to come to life. Light shot out of the engravings and came together in the center of the room like a giant projector. The light expanded, and then formed what seemed like a three-dimensional spinning screen. The projection began to make sounds, speaking in the language that he could not understand; that was nothing more than a fast jumble of unknown sounds. The screen flashed images at him, images that were moving too quickly for him to see. Mulder just stood, completely awestruck, lost for speech or thought.  
  
When the door suddenly opened.  
  
At this, the room reacted as well...the screen switched off, the humming ceased, and the comforting glow coming from the mural vanished into blackness. Mulder snapped back into reality and felt ice sting on his skin as he realized that they had found him.  
  
His heart, having burned with the fires of hope, now died into a mass of cold ash. Guards, doctors and officers were surrounding him on all sides, the guards carrying the familiar snapguns. Their faces showed no emotion except that of anger, and the only way Mulder could tell them apart was by their uniforms. But Mulder refused to submit. Not now, not after the strange firebirds had given him an unknown source of power. He faced them bravely and exclaimed his only possible defense.  
  
"YOU TURNED YOUR BACK, GUARD!!"  
  
Mulder didn't know much about them and their ways. But he had stayed here long enough to know a few rules. Most of these rules applied to the test subjects...schedules consisted of one- third of the time for the operating room, one third for small meals, or "edobells" as they were called, and one-third for sleeping. Anyone who did not adhere to the schedule got three to five strikes from the snapgun. Anyone who resisted movement between stations was given 15 snapgun strikes and a full schedule's time in the darkbox, a solitary confinement place with no light and no food.  
  
However, there were rules that applied to the guards, too. One of these rules was no one, guards or officers, could tell their name to a test subject. No communication at all was allowed between them and him, in fact. However, his guard escort talked to him frequently. But all that the guard's talking was was just another form of torture. He would usually relate to Mulder what they were going to do in the operating room that time, and it made the experience twice as worse for Mulder knowing what was going to happen rather than not knowing. The guard knew it was torture for Mulder, and that was why he did it...because for some unknown reason, the guard had hated Mulder from day one. Another rule was that when guards escorted test subjects between stations, they always made sure they walked side by side. His guard had become careless, and had let Mulder march behind, giving him the opportunity for attack. Mulder knew all this, and he knew that if he could put as much blame on his guard as possible, they would be too busy punishing him to punish himself as much. And he didn't even want to imagine what sort of penalty they had for assaulting a guard.  
  
Mulder was not sure what had motivated him to attack his guard earlier that morning...somehow, in the back of his mind, Mulder had known that they were not planning to test on him for a little while and then return him...they wanted to keep him there forever. Mulder had instinctively known this, and had done nothing for the longest time. He had followed along with the schedule day after day, bravely enduring each new torture they imposed upon him with the weak belief that this might be the last one and he would be set free.  
  
But today had been different. Perhaps the poorly-processed food they gave him had affected his blood and changed his hormone levels the wrong way. Perhaps it was the way his guard had looked at him, eager to tell what types of drills they had been cleaning and which anatomy charts were being studied. Whatever the reason, something inside Mulder had snapped, and he realized that he needed to fight for his freedom. A quick punch to the back of the neck had sent the guard to the ground, and Mulder had managed to kick him a few more times before sprinting off into the smoke- filled darkness.  
  
Only now they had found him again, and Mulder could only think to try and save himself from whatever punishment they dared to use.  
  
But those surrounding him did not seem the least bit interested in either the escaped Mulder or the revealed guard. They were all staring with looks of complete fear at the symbol on Mulder's hand.  
  
Mulder's mind began to overflow with questions as he watched the guards backing away from him as if he were a bomb about to explode. They all seemed to have lost their nerve, their unwavering authority, and Mulder couldn't understand why. Mulder looked and saw the head officer standing next to the frightened guard. After a tense silence, the head officer shouted in English, "FIREBIRD CONFINEMENT! NOW!!"  
  
At this order, the guards began to move in again, their unknown fear evolving into anger. The confidence and power drained out of Mulder as the guards surrounded him, snapguns charged. "No..." Mulder's despair found form in words. "No...I'm not going to go back...I'm not going to do it again..."  
  
Three guards grabbed him at the same time while one gave him a shock with a snapgun. Mulder's body reacted with the usual convulsion and he cried out again...  
  
"NO! NO, I'M NOT GOING! I'M NOT GOING BACK! LET ME GO, I WON'T!! NO!!!"  
  
But Mulder was easily overpowered, and he submitted to the shocks and strong arms with desperate tears in his eyes. It was over for him now...they were never going to let him escape again. As they were dragging him away, he saw the head officer staring with a deadpan expression at the engraved wall. The guard cleared his throat and whispered..."I suspected as much."  
  
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  
  
Mulder did not pay any attention to where the guards were taking him; no doubt to some new torture chamber designed to "test his endurance." He could hear the guards talking amongst themselves, but he could not understand them. The only thing that was familiar was the sound of fear in their voices.  
  
After an eternity of being roughly dragged across rusted metal floors, they came to a single door that had obviously not been used in a long time. He did not recognize this area...it was certainly a lot more dirty and crude than where he usually was, which was bad enough. A guard punched the doorlock and the metal slab zipped open.  
  
Mulder did not resist when they quickly shoved him into the darkened room and slammed the door shut behind him. He lay there for awhile, curled into a tight ball of hopeless, cold flesh, sobbing. He had tried to escape, and it had failed, and now he was never going to get out again. With luck they would leave him there to quietly starve in the dark, and not slowly dismember his body schedule by schedule. Stripped, broken and doomed to remain in this dark tomb, Mulder laid down on the icy metal floor and sobbed quietly to himself.  
  
When a light caused him to open his eyes.  
  
His vision still blurry with tears, Mulder could not see well, but he could definitely see a small ball of greenish-blue light shining brightly in the corner. He wiped his eyes, wondering what was causing the light...  
  
When it MOVED. The light shot off from the corner like a bullet from a gun and headed straight for Mulder. Mulder gasped and ducked, and the light zoomed past him and bounced off of the far wall.  
  
Mulder watched with frightened surprise as the light continued to move around the room, acting like a giant glowing bouncy ball. It ricocheted across the walls, ceiling, floor and back again. Mulder had to move several times to avoid it hitting him head-on. Too shocked to do or say anything, he continued to watch the light bounce around the room...  
  
...Until something CAUGHT the ball of light.  
  
Out of the darkness, a hand shot up in front of the ball of light and stopped it on its wild path. The light was brought down between two hands, and in its glow he could make out a strange face...  
  
CREEEAK-AK-AK-AK...  
  
Mulder jumped and began to crawl away as a sound like a hawk's cry reverberated around the black room. This call was answered by what sounded like a rapid chattering, like dice being rolled around inside a cup, from the opposite end of the room. (What's going on here?...)  
  
Mulder panicked as he heard the sounds of movement all around him. He backed up against the wall and wrapped his arms around his legs, afraid to breathe. He could hear shuffling, tapping against the metal as whatever was in the dark moved towards him. Mulder didn't know whether to fight or hide...not that he could do much of either.  
  
And then suddenly, the ball of light was right in front of him, illuminating two faces that were staring straight at him.  
  
Mulder let out a cry of terror as he stared back at the three things...it was certain that none of them were anywhere near human. There was one directly in his face, that had the head of some type of bird. A large feathered crest rested on its head, and it observed Mulder with large, aquamarine eyes. Its entire body, which had somewhat a human shape, was covered in fine reddish feathers. Very large feathers also extended from its shoulders, but somehow Mulder didn't think they were used for flying. The bird-creature was wearing what looked like a tank top adorned with a large stone crest, and a belt with several large pouches.  
  
The second creature Mulder could only describe as a hammerhead rodent. It had large, unblinking eyes that were extended far from its head, four small ears and rat-like teeth. The creature was covered with an unrealistically thick fur coat, and had small, mouse-like hands.  
  
Now Mulder was completely surrounded by these strange entities with nowhere to run and nothing to fight them with. All he could do was sit there, shaking, hoping they would go away...  
  
The bird-creature, which had been holding the ball of light, tossed it to the rodent-creature. Mulder stiffened as the bird lifted his chin to look at him. REEAK-CAK-AK-EE? the thing sounded, making noises by screeching and clicking its tongue against its beak. Mulder yanked himself away from its touch, shuddering and refusing to say anything.  
  
The bird-creature and the rodent-creature began to communicate back and forth between each other, the bird speaking in screeches and clicks and the rodent chattering its large teeth together. They seemed to be arguing with each other, gesturing at Mulder constantly. The bird-creature gave a final screech and began to search around in one of the pouches hanging from its belt.  
  
Mulder's pulse quickened as the creature pulled out a large hand-held device. Mulder could not tell what it was; it didn't resemble anything he had ever seen before. The bird switched it on, and a laser-like beam extended from a small hole in the front.  
  
Mulder curled himself up protectively and shut his eyes. He had had laser drill operations performs on his eyes before...it had been one of the most painful tests. He was not about to let something like that happen to him again.  
  
But his efforts were in vain. The bird-creature gave a screech-click, and the rodent-creature suddenly reached out and forced Mulder's eyes open. He gave a desperate cry of protest, but now it was too late. Small, cold fingers held his eyes open as the bird-creature passed the laser over his retinas. Mulder expected more painful drillings, but strangely the laser didn't hurt. He felt like he was just being given an eye scan.  
  
The bird-creature studied a small monitor on the device with the rodent-creature looking over its shoulder. The rodent-creature gave some definite chatterings and looked smugly at the bird. The bird sighed, put the device back into its pouch, and pulled out a new device. This one was small, roundish and had a few metal clasps. The bird-creature extended the device to Mulder...it wanted him to take it.  
  
"You...you want me to have this?" Mulder asked slowly, hesitantly, wondering if the thing could understand him. The bird creature shook its head rapidly, like a dog shaking water off.  
  
Something inside Mulder compelled him to take the device...he had every reason to be afraid of these strange beings, but for some unknown reason he felt safe and secure. He took the device and held it in his palm...only now he didn't know what to do with it.  
  
The bird-creature appeared frustrated. It screeched at Mulder, waving its hands about, and then tilted its head to one side to reveal an identical device attached to its head.  
  
Mulder was still confused. Just then, the rodent-creature came forward and motioned to him that it also had an identical device on one of its four ears.  
  
Mulder stared down at the device in his palm. (This is certainly new...me applying alien technology to myself...) Mulder took a deep breath and pressed the device against his ear. He felt the clasps digging into his skin and something else entering his ear. But when he looked back at the bird-creature, he clearly heard it say...  
  
[...What is your race?]  
  
Mulder jumped with surprise and pressed himself against the wall, not believing that he just heard familiar words come out of this thing's mouth. The words did not fit the movements the creature made, so he felt like he was watching a living dubbed Japanese movie. The bird had a female voice, and even a slight British accent. Mulder didn't know how to respond, so he just sat and moved his lips.  
  
This agitated the bird-creature further. [Look, I'm tired with trying to get sense out of you! You're not an Argothian, I am assuming, because if you were I would kill you right now. So what is your race?]  
  
Mulder did not respond. This thing was almost more frightening when he could understand it than when he couldn't. The rodent-creature then reached over, took the laser-eye-scan device out of its pouch, and began to look over it carefully. [Are you certain this thing is working properly? He sounds no more intelligent than a Porgan to me.] The rodent said in English.  
  
[Slander, we don't even know if it's a he or she or what! I'm trying to figure out what it is and you're busy complaining about my intel-calic!]  
  
Mulder finally dared to speak. "W...what is this thing?" He pointed to the device in his ear.  
  
The bird brightened. [Aha, I knew I could get sense out of you!] It reached into its pouch and pulled out a handful of identical devices to show Mulder. [They're called translos. We used to use them on my homeworld...each family spoke a different language. These things can take nearly any tongue and provide an instant translation...a lot easier than trying to learn millions of different languages. Now that we've explained that, will you please tell me what your race is?!]  
  
The rodent-creature spoke up again, sounding just slightly annoyed with the impatience of the bird. [Yallus...you are forgetting proper interracial etiquette. You must always present your title before you ask someone to present theirs.]  
  
[Oh, honestly! You think that 'proper interracial etiquette' matters at a time like this?!] It squawked.  
  
A look from the rodent creature softened the bird's frustration. It sighed, straightened itself up, and turned to Mulder.  
  
[Very well. Forgive me for not introducing myself first. My name is Yallus Tallo. I am female, and my homeworld was Arethia...of course, this means I'm a Thybiran.]  
  
Yallus then turned to the rodent. [And this is Slander da tre Harim. He's a Miman, and...I don't remember what your homeworld is...]  
  
[It's Rodcuva,] Slander said. [And I am glad to meet you,] He added to Mulder politely.  
  
[And finally...] Yallus spoke up again. [This is Tho. She's a Bleebeean, from Enero.]  
  
Yallus held up the ball of light. And for the first time, Mulder realized that the bright bouncy-ball had eyes. The light- ball named Tho turned a bright purple color.  
  
[Now that I have introduced us all, I will ask you again what you are!] Yallus demanded. [Do you have a title? What is your homeworld? Do you have a ship, or another transport, or any knowledge of what's going on outside?]  
  
Somehow, the introduction process seemed to lessen Mulder's fears, although they were still there. He wet his lips and gathered up the strength to speak. "M...my name is Mulder. Fox Mulder, but everyone calls me Mulder."  
  
[See, that wasn't so hard," Yallus said. "Odd name, Mulder is. What is your race and homeworld?]  
  
Mulder thought. "Umm...I guess I'm Human...and I am from Earth."  
  
Slander wrung his hands together, muttering to himself... [Human? Earth? I have never heard of such a race or place before...are you from an uncharted sector? I thought I knew every civilized plant in the five sectors...]  
  
"Wait a minute..." Mulder said, desperately trying to make sense of this odd situation. "Are you all...aliens?"  
  
Yallus scowled at him. ['Alien' is an ugly word, Mulder. You always use the term 'race' when referring to peoples other than your own. 'Alien' is the type of thing an Argothian would say.]  
  
"What is an Argothian?"  
  
Yallus nearly choked in surprise at Mulder's question. [You don't know?! How could you not?!! Why, we're aboard an Argothian doctoral transport right now! They're the ones running this entire vehicle! The ones who currently control nearly 63% of all planets in the known five sectors!! And you are telling me you have never heard of them before?!]  
  
"Not by that name," Mulder sighed. "I'm sorry...I have never seen anything like you before. Almost everyone on my planet doesn't believe there are other races outside of the ones on my planet."  
  
At this, all the people in front of Mulder began to laugh hysterically, and Tho began flashing white and light purple.  
  
Through laughter, Slander asked, [No other races besides your own? What sort of isolated planet do you come from, anyway? Why, there are hundreds of races all throughout these sectors...I could name 20 on this ship right now!]  
  
"I never knew where I was..." Mulder said slowly. "I haven't seen any part of this place except my cell and the...operating room..."  
  
[There is little to see. At least not down here...and nobody but top Argothians are allowed on the upper level. No 'test subject' has ever seen the control room.]  
  
[Can I ask you a question?] Slander said to Mulder. Mulder nodded. [Is it normal for you to be seated like that? From what I can tell, it seems awkward for your anatomy...]  
  
For the first time, Mulder realized the position he had been talking to these people in. He was pressed up against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest, as if trying to make himself as small as possible. He sighed, "I'm sitting like this 'cause I'm cold...and almost naked..."  
  
[Then you can have my covering,] Slander responded. [It's considered indecent by my people to expose our bodies, but I'm the only Miman here, and it seems you need this more than I do.] Mulder then watched in surprise as Slander seemed to wriggle around inside his skin, and then remove the entire thick fur layer. Underneath, Slander actually had what looked like normal skin, and he now more resembled a Mexican hairless dog than a rodent. Mulder was hesitant to take the coat at first, but Slander's look compelled him to take it. He wrapped the enormous fur coat around himself, and almost instantly felt the cold evaporate around him. "Th-thank you," Mulder said to Slander.  
  
As Mulder settled down, Yallus sat next to him. [You are an odd creature, to be certain. But you certainly seem respectful enough to me. Forgive me if I was rude to you...I wasn't sure if you were a disguised Argothian or not. From the little I've seen of them, they seem to be taking your shape frequently. It was puzzling me.]  
  
Mulder still had a million questions to ask, and he did not know where to start. So he just chose one out of the pile. "What was that device that you passed over my eyes?"  
  
[Oh...] Yallus picked the device up off the floor and showed it to Mulder. [This is my intel-calic. It measures intelligence using the Universal Intelligence Scale, which goes from 0 to 1000. I used it on you to see if you were intelligent enough to communicate with. You got a 731.01...that's up there. Of course, the sense of 'intelligence' is relative, so the reading is very general and only measures in the sense of brain waves. Not all races will respond to an intel-calic. I remember Thybirans used to have a 808.59...]  
  
"Yallus, why do you keep saying 'used to' and using the past tense?" Mulder asked.  
  
That made Yallus very quiet. She had to take several deep breaths before answering. [Because.....I am the only Thybiran left. Argothians have already conquered Arethia.] Yallus stood up and began to pace around the room, her aquamarine eyes brimming with moisture. [And we knew it was coming! We could have stopped it...we could have set up a counterattack, we could have made an alliance with Felkar...but we didn't! We just stood by and watched it all come to an end by those DAMN ARGOTHIAN BASTARDS!!!]  
  
Yallus shouted the last words and hurled the intel-calic forcefully at the wall, where it bounced and a piece of it broke off. Yallus collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily. [I swear if I ever get out of this hellhole I'll make them sorry they dared to exist...I'll get them...I'll make them pay for taking Dermuli...and Dilchi.....]  
  
Slander walked over and put his hand on Yallus's feathery shoulder. He said nothing, just stood there and hoped his presence provided comfort for the devastated Thybiran.  
  
Mulder felt his heart go out to Yallus...he didn't even want to imagine what would happen if Colonization was carried out on Earth without a resistance. (Is this were the human race is headed? Are just next on a long list?)  
  
Mulder could not think about these sorts of things right now, and he tried to keep his mind on the present. "Well...I'm sorry if this is hurting you, Yallus...but can I ask you something else?" Yallus nodded. "If your race and homeworld were wiped out, why are you still alive and why are you here?"  
  
Yallus cleared her throat with a squawk. [Basically, they forgot I was here. I've been here for a very long time. If they knew I was still alive, they'd kill me immediately. The Argothians only think that Slander and Tho are in here, so I've been eating Tho's meals. Stupid Argothians forgot that Tho is made of energy and doesn't need food...and they boast about their 889.23 intelligence...]  
  
"But where is here, exactly?" Mulder questioned. "I've always had my own cell until I escaped today. I didn't know they had collective cells."  
  
[Oh, this isn't a cell,] Slander explained. [This is firebird confinement. We're all suspected firebirds.]  
  
Instantly, the image of the mural jumped to Mulder's mind, and his heartbeat quickened. "Firebirds?"  
  
Yallus groaned. [Yes, that damn Argothian legend was what singled us Thybirans out, because of our resemblance to the firebirds. They suspected me of being the red one...Dermuli, my mate, was the blue one, and my child Dilchi was the Child of the Fire.]  
  
Mulder suddenly felt the need to say what had happened to him earlier. "When I escaped from my cell, I found a room with a mural in it. I saw pictures of firebirds on it, and dragons and unicorns. When I touched it, the wall started to glow...and this appeared on my hand." Mulder, who had been hiding his hands to keep them warm, took out the one hand and revealed the symbol blazing in brilliant blue.  
  
The reaction of the three aliens was something Mulder could never forget. When they saw the symbol, they all backed away at once, and they drew in closer again. Yallus, trembling with excitement, grabbed up Mulder's hand and carefully traced the symbol. Her eyes lit up with an unnatural light, and she kept looking from the symbol to Mulder's face and back. Tho had turned a brilliant yellow-green color and Slander was nearly hopping up and down with anticipation.  
  
[It's true!] Yallus said in a quiet voice, and then louder, [It IS true! I don't believe it! And all this time I never thought it could be anything more than a legend! But it's here...and I don't believe it!] Her last words ended in a sort of screech- laugh.  
  
Tho had been flashing furiously and hopping in Slander's hand. Slander shouted, [Go, Tho, go!] and then threw the small Bleebeean at the far wall. Yallus let out a long, loud whoop as Tho bounced around the room furiously, making Mulder's eyes hurt watching the fast-traveling light. Finally, Tho bounced back into Slander's hand.  
  
Yallus suddenly turned to Mulder and gripped his shoulders in her hands. [Blue firebird, you have to tell us! Where is the red one, where is the Child of the Fire?]  
  
Mulder was almost completely lost for words. "I...I don't know what you're talking about..."  
  
[You have to know where the other two are! Where is the Child of the Fire?!] Yallus was now shaking Mulder, her beak almost touching his nose.  
  
Mulder was beginning to panic. "I don't know any firebirds! I don't know any child! Please, I don't know!!"  
  
[Yallus, perhaps he has not heard the legend,] Slander explained to the frantic Thybiran. Yallus relaxed a little, but not very much.  
  
"What legend? What is this thing on my hand?" Mulder demanded, his breath ragged with fear and confusion.  
  
[I'll explain it to you later,] Yallus said, looking as if she were deep in thought. [I can best illustrate if we find a tesservid...you can never quite understand the magnitude of this if I just tell you.] She stood up, and began to look around the room. [First things first, we have to get out of here right now. We have to escape, find our way to the docking bay, and steal a transport...maybe a gunner...and get to the Universal League of Races Head Station. They'll finally be able to unite all the stragglers, and the legend will come true!]  
  
"Wait a minute, escape?!" Mulder said in surprise. "I don't know if I want to get out right now...they're furious at me because I assaulted a guard, they'll test on me more..."  
  
Yallus laughed at Mulder. [Why, you're the blue firebird, you're the last person who should be afraid of the Argothians!]  
  
"I don't know what the blue firebird is!"  
  
Yallus didn't seem to realize that Mulder was completely at a loss as to what she was talking about. She continued to scheme, growing more excited with each passing minute. [We just need to figure out how to escape...perhaps if I took apart my intel-calic and some translos and put them back together I could pick at the doorlock...but I need to find some way to wrench the door open partially...]  
  
While Yallus was rattling on, Mulder was looking over the small room, trying to figure out what they should do, while Slander paced about nervously, holding Tho between his hands. Mulder stared for awhile at the glowing ball of light...  
  
"Yallus," Mulder suddenly asked. "What you said earlier...is Tho really made out of energy?"  
  
[Yes.....]  
  
"Then shouldn't she be able to move through solid objects, such as doors?"  
  
Yallus sighed. [That would be true...except for this type of prison. It's made up of optrom slabs.]  
  
"I don't know what optrom slabs are."  
  
[Optrom is an energy-reflective metal. Most smaller transports use it for shields, but its hard to come by since it is formed in small amounts and is next to impossible to cut,] Slander explained. [This entire room is made out of optrom slabs held together by leftotium gum, which an good energy conductor. If Tho were to touch the optrom slabs, she'd be split into a hundred rays of energy. That's why she only bounces on the binding gum.]  
  
An idea was beginning to form in Mulder's head, and he felt his blood pump faster at the realization that they might get out. "If Tho were to bounce on an optrom slab and split up, could she come back together?"  
  
[Yes...Bleebeeans have a very strong center of gravity...]  
  
Mulder explained his idea with excitement. "Well, if Tho were to bounce on an optrom slab and split into rays of energy, she could blast the door and we would be free!"  
  
[You mean she would blast us,] Slander corrected. [You can never touch a Bleebeean directly - you would get your fingers burned off. And if Tho is split we'll most certainly be cut through by energy rays.]  
  
All throughout this talking, Tho was looking around, beginning to worry about where this might be heading. She turned a brownish color and flashed a message. Slander smiled at the small ball of light. [Don't worry, Tho. We're going to get out of here, and we'll make sure that no one gets hurt.]  
  
Yallus had caught on to Mulder's idea and was beginning to build off of it. [Perhaps...it could work! If we could tear up a few optrom slabs, and each of us get in a corner of the room, we could use them as shields to protect us.]  
  
"Can we do that?" Mulder asked.  
  
[We can try!] Yallus immediately pulled out a handful of translos, leaving at least a few behind, and retrieved her intel- calic. Yallus was the only one who was very good with machines, and Mulder knew absolutely nothing about alien technology, so she set to work taking apart the various gadgets.  
  
The other three people watched in amazement as the Thybiran took apart the intel-calic, removed some parts, replaced them with some parts from her translos, and put it back together again. As Yallus stared at the rebuilt intel-calic, she remarked, [It's amazing! I can't believe I didn't think of the idea myself! And I thought Thybirans had a greater intelligence...]  
  
Yallus immediately tried out the revised machine. By taking a few things out and putting some new pieces in, she had been greatly able to increase the laser's power. She switched it on and pointed it towards the material that binded the slabs together, and the laser almost instantly burned away the leftotium gum. Yallus gave an excited grin to her comrades and continued to cut around the perimeter of the optrom slab. When she was finished, she carefully picked the slab up out of its place and set it aside. Beneath the optrom slabs was a second metal floor; the normal kind that Mulder had seen before.  
  
[It works!] Slander exclaimed. [We can do this! cut some more, Yallus!] Yallus obeyed heartily, and she set to work on another slab.  
  
Mulder watched all this with great anticipation, and in his thinking he began to realize exactly what he was doing. He was sitting in an alien jail cell, having conversations and planning escapes with intelligent creatures he never imagined could exist...even wearing an alien's coat! (I wonder what Scully would say if she...)  
  
Mulder stopped mid-thought at the reminder of Scully. He had not stopped thinking about her ever since he had been taken. She was in his dreams every night, and he forced her into his mind during the testing, so as to distance himself as much as possible from the torturous present. After so many long schedules, his memories had begun to become blurred, and she now seemed like a person he had known in a former life. He used to be able to recall every single detail on her face, but not anymore...perhaps the tests had dulled his memory over time. Or perhaps they were purposefully trying to make him forget, so as to make sure there was not any chance of hope left with him. The only thing that really stuck with him was her name...he mumbled it to himself every schedule when he went to sleep, when he woke up, when he went into the operating room. It was his prayer, his one defense against their rules and expectations.  
  
(If I could get back to her...)  
  
Mulder didn't even put such thoughts in his head. That would be too good to be true, too miraculous to be reality, after everything he had experienced here. He couldn't--  
  
[Got it!] Yallus's voice suddenly interrupted Mulder, and he snapped back to the present. The Thybiran had cut loose three large optrom slabs, each one big enough for them to hide behind. Yallus picked up one and handed it to Mulder. It was heavy, and yet brittle, but Mulder could carry it. The female Thybiran gave Mulder a smile and puffed out her red, feathery chest with pride.  
  
[Let's get out of here, blue firebird.]  
  
Mulder did not question the strange name, but just smiled back. [Alight!] Yallus said to everyone. [Get completely behind your shield, and I'll throw Tho. The door breaking open will create enough noise as it is, so we have to keep quiet and make sure it's safe before we rush out.]  
  
Slander and Yallus each took their own slab and headed for a corner of the room, where they could be the most safe. It took awhile for Mulder to find his corner in the dark, but he eventually found it and curled himself into a protective ball behind his slab.  
  
[Is everyone ready?] He heard Yallus's voice call out in the dark.  
  
She was answered by two affirmatives.  
  
[Alright...go Tho! Bounce on a slab!!] Yallus shouted, and threw the Bleebeean.  
  
Mulder shut his eyes tightly as he heard Tho go zooming off around the room. Then there was what sounded like someone trying to force an object through a paper-thin glass window, and a flash of light and heat that he could feel just inches away from searing his skin. The sound became higher and the heat grew hotter until finally...  
  
KKKVVVVVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!  
  
Mulder waited before the sound went off and the heat died away before he ventured out from behind his slab. The first thing he saw was Tho barely bouncing in the middle of the room, flickering as if she were about to go out. He also saw extra light streaming into the room from outside...the door had been blown completely out of its frame.  
  
Slander came out from behind his slab and picked up the blinking Tho. It was apparent that the splitting had drained Tho, and she appeared exhausted. [That was great, Tho! You're the best Bleebeean I've ever met!] Slander encouraged his friend.  
  
Yallus also ventured out. She peered carefully out into the hallway, checking to make sure there was no one out there waiting for them. [It's all clear. Let's go!]  
  
The four stepped out of the black cell, blinking and somewhat confused. Mulder had only been in the cell for a little while, but Yallus, Slander and Tho had not been outside in ages, and it took awhile for them to get used to their new surroundings.  
  
[Outside...] Yallus said with wonder. [Outside! I can't remember the last time I saw something other than those four walls!]  
  
And there was a lot to see. They were in the lower levels over what Yallus called an "Argothian doctoral transport," and from their position they could see hundreds of twisting passages and structures, all of them making no sense to Mulder. He had not paid much attention to the places around him before, because he had had no say on where he went. But now, he was presented with a million different choices, all of which could lead to capture and a return to torture.  
  
[I wish I had some sort of weapon...] Mulder heard Yallus mutter to herself.  
  
"The guards have snapguns," He said.  
  
[Ha! Snapguns are cheap toys! We're in the middle of an Argothian ship...we need some REAL weapons!]  
  
"They sure didn't feel like 'cheap toys' to me..." Mulder said, remembering the many painful convulsions he had received from them.  
  
The four ventured out into the maze, wary of guards and workmen that might be lurking behind every corner. Down in this level there were mostly engines, fuel tanks, power systems and other things that ran throughout the entire ship.  
  
As they were walking, Mulder glanced down at his hand and was reminded of the strange symbol emblazoned on his skin.  
  
"Yallus...you promised that you would tell me what the firebird legend was."  
  
[Oh, of course. We'll get up to the next level, and we'll be sure to find a conference room that no one is using. They have too many of those rooms.]  
  
After a good time spent walking, they came across an enormously-sized elevator. Mulder did not even realize it was an elevator until Yallus said, [Here we go...a turbolift on this level; good. They won't suspect anything if they see it coming up.]  
  
"How come we haven't seen any guards or doctors down here?" Mulder asked.  
  
[Most Argothians don't work on this level...it's all grunt maintenance work down here; they all either work as guards and doctors on the above level or officers and pilots on the top level. They would use a few slaves to work down here...Slorans, most likely.]  
  
With that, the Thybiran stepped into the turbolift, and the others followed her. Yallus punched some buttons on a console on the wall, and the huge elevator quickly ascended several stories.  
  
They could see all of the middle section of the ship, and Mulder was amazed at the complexity of what lay before him.  
  
Before long, the turbolift reached its destination, and Yallus did another check of the area before they went outside again. Mulder could see a big difference in the levels...this one was a bit nicer than the one below, and the structures looked more familiar to him.  
  
[All we have to do now is find that conference room you were speaking of...] Slander said.  
  
Tho brightened (literally), and bounced ahead of the group, flashing a message. [Alight, if you think you know where one could be!] Slander said in response, and followed Tho off down the hall. The other three had no choice but the follow them.  
  
Tho's sense of direction was apparently very accurate...after only a few twists and turns down darkened metal halls, she stopped at a single metal door and bounced excitedly. Yallus punched on the doorlock, and the door zipped open to reveal a large, smooth table with odd-looking chairs and a few lights overhead. A strange structure was placed in the middle of the table.  
  
Yallus grinned. [This is perfect...doctor's conference room. They have a lot that are never used, so we won't be bothered.]  
  
As Mulder stepped inside, he saw something that caught his eye and made him smile. On one side of the room were a few shelves, and on the shelves were several folded clothes. There were some neutral gray shirts made of a material like flannel, and some black pants. They looked a little big for him, but he had no trouble trading them for his Miman fur coat, which he handed back to Slander.  
  
[I wonder what clothes for your race are doing here,] Slander remarked.  
  
"I don't care...I'm just happy to have them," Mulder said, fitting the shirt over himself.  
  
[Alright, Mulder, now you must pay attention,] Yallus said. [This story is extremely important to you, and to all the universe, in fact. If you know it, you can understand how important you are.]  
  
Yallus switched some buttons on the top of the table, and a projection illuminated the space above the table. It looked similar to the light projection he had seen when he found the mural. "Wow...what is this?" Mulder asked in awe.  
  
[A tesservid,] Yallus explained. [It creates four- dimensional moving images. Argothians first discovered a tesservid on Seereenee, ironically enough, and now it's all they use. Only a few races can actually observe four dimensions, and Argothians are not one of them, although they would like to think they are. To most other races, tesservids look like three-dimensional spinning projections. Argothians use tesservids to store certain information, usually on test results, homeworld conditions and travel routes.  
  
[Now, before I tell you the legend of the firebirds, there are a few things you need to know about the Argothians. They are a very powerful, very intelligent, very warlike race. They believe that it is their destiny to conquer the entire universe and control every planet they can. They love technology, especially biotechnology, and have experimented on themselves so much that they have nearly created new races. They've genetically re- engineered themselves to be able to morph into other races and so that nearly four times as many males are born as females.  
  
[Argothians conquer other homeworlds through whatever means they can...usually they use a combination of biological, negotiation and military tactics to do so. The Argothian homeworld is Morgor, but they have conquered so many homeworlds that they now refer to Morgor as their "origin planet." Almost all Argothians dedicate their lives to their common mission to control the universe. There are a few that do not agree with their twisted Manifest Destiny, and would rather run their own lives, but these independents are quickly outcasted, exiled and even killed. Argothians are raised to believe that their race is superior to all others, and that it is their mission to annihilate all 'inferior beings.'  
  
[Now, a long time ago, an Argothian general had a vision, and he told this vision to his female mate. This vision was passed down through hundreds of generations as a legend. Now what few Argothian mothers there are tell the legend to their children as a warning.  
  
[The legend says that there would come a time when the Argothians were close to conquering the whole of the universe, when they came to a small planet isolated somewhere in one of the outer systems. On this planet were two firebirds, one of them blue and the other red.]  
  
Yallus pressed some buttons on the table, and the tesservid displayed an image of the two firebirds flying through the air, side by side. Mulder was amazed at the bright spinning image before him, and he looked on with interest.  
  
Yallus continued. [These two firebirds were very powerful beings who knew of the Argothian's plans and wanted to stop them. Even though the firebirds were very strong in magic, they still could not defeat the entire Argothian army. So, they came to a point where these two firebirds came together and created a new firebird, the offspring of the two.]  
  
The tesservid image changed, so that it showed the red and blue firebirds, beating their wings furiously and hovering over a smaller, purple firebird surrounded in flame. The images continued to spin, giving Mulder the view from all angles.  
  
[This new firebird, the Child of the Fire, received from its parents very strong magic, and was extraordinarily powerful. Throughout its entire body ran magical blood, and this magic blood was in fact a deadly poison to the Argothians. The Child of the Fire could even give a drop of its blood to other creatures, and they would be endowed with the same magic. This single young entity had the power to stop the entire Argothian march forward...even destroy their race completely.  
  
[The legend also talks about how the Argothians reacted to this Child of the Fire. Terrified of their possible end, the Argothians made a pact with a dragon that lived on the same homeworld as the firebirds. The dragon promised to kill the firebirds and the Child of the Fire in exchange for his own life when the Argothians would conquer his planet. This dragon was a mortal enemy of the firebirds, and he tried many times to end their lives, but all times he failed. At last, after the Child of the Fire had been created, the dragon fought the firebirds again, and wounded the blue firebird so that he could not reach the red firebird.]  
  
Now the tesservid displayed a fearsome battle between the two firebirds and the dragon, just like the picture on the mural, only this time it was alive and almost too realistic for Mulder. He watched the scene play out before him with a mixture of fear and wonderment...wondering how this connected to him...  
  
[When the red firebird was separated from the blue one, it attacked the dragon fiercely, and the dragon was wounded as well. The red firebird and the Child of the Fire hid from the possible returning dragon, remaining under the watch of five white generals from the firebird's planet, and tried to find the blue firebird.  
  
[It was a long time before the blue firebird returned, but when it did, it did so just in time, for the Argothian army was already preparing to destroy the firebird's planet. The Argothians had planned their invasion for a later date, but they were so fearful of the Child of the Fire rising to fight them that they decided to quickly invade the planet before the chance arose. However, they did not invade soon enough, for the Child of the Fire had reached the age where it could spread its magical blood to all creatures that needed it. Just as the Argothians were beginning the battle with the firebird's people, the Child of the Fire spread its blood out to the riding army and made them invincible against the Argothians.]  
  
Now the tesservid showed a new image, so large that it nearly covered the entire table, of an army of three-horned black unicorns running into battle against an army of white unicorns. The two armies clashed in battle, and the black unicorns began to drive back the white unicorns until the purple firebird, now grown, flew out over the white army.  
  
[This caused the white unicorns to gain new ground, and eventually annihilate the entire Argothian army. However, as the Argothians were retreating, the dragon challenged the Child of the Fire to a fight. The dragon, when it had been wounded, had gone to the Argothians to be healed, and had been given Argothian blood and now had become a three-horned, black dragon. The blue and red firebirds came to the aid of their child, and together they killed the Argothian dragon. With the dragon dead, the entire Argothian race was at the mercy of the Child of the Fire, and they were soon destroyed completely.]  
  
The final image was of another battle between the black dragon and the three firebirds, and the dragon was thrown to the ground and then killed by the purple firebird. The purple firebird perched on top of the dragon and gave a victory cry as its parents stood on either side.  
  
Yallus switched off the tesservid then, making the room become dark again. She turned to Mulder. [You see then, how important this is? The Argothians do not fear anything...ANYTHING in this entire universe, except for that one child. They obsess over it often, search every planet thoroughly to see if the firebirds could be living there. They place murals and tesservids and other reminders of the legend all throughout their ships and workplaces to put fear into the hearts of those that might be lazy or not working hard, so that they might be reminded of what could happen to them if they do not always work hard to ensure the good of the Argothian cause. The legend makes Argothians even more fearful of other races than they already were, because the creatures pictured in the legend do not resemble any of the other life forms on Morgor or familiar to Argothians.]  
  
Mulder chose to interrupt suddenly. "Those creatures...they resemble mythical creatures on my planet. Unicorns are a mythical animal in ancient Europe, and the firebirds are like the phoenix from ancient Egypt. Dragons exist in all different kinds of stories all over the world...I was wondering what they were doing on the wall of the ship, and I liked them just because they were familiar..."  
  
Yallus gave Mulder an interested look. [That might explain it, then...]  
  
"Explain what?"  
  
Yallus decided to ignore Mulder's question and finish her explanation. [You see, Argothians keep a special watch on planets that are suspected of being the firebird's homeworld. This is why Arethia was quickly singled out...my people, the Thybirans, greatly resemble the firebirds in the legend. No Argothian will ever be able to sleep soundly until they are certain that they have destroyed the firebird's planet and the Child of the Fire along with it.]  
  
Mulder soaked all of this information in carefully. He felt some odd sort of relief at this legend...relief that the aliens had some sort of weakness, a fear...something that they could fight back with. However, his relief was far less than his most immediate feelings and the question that went with them.  
  
"I think I understand what you are talking about...but what does this legend have to do with me?"  
  
Yallus gave Mulder a look. [The final thing that the legend says is that the Argothians can recognize the firebirds by only one thing...all three of the firebirds have in their blood a genetic pattern that forms a symbol when activated. You told us that you had touched the mural, and it began to glow. You see, Argothians incorporate themselves into a lot of their technology, including their ships and transports. The mural is programmed to react to a genetic makeup that is resistant to Argothian blood...as well as activate the symbol that marks them as a firebird. You are the only one that has ever received the symbol from a mural...that makes you the blue firebird. On top of that, you say that the creatures pictured in the legend, such as the dragon and unicorns, are creatures of myth on your homeworld, so it would make sense that such images would come from your culture. You must be the blue firebird.]  
  
There was a long silence. Mulder felt the eyes of the three different races on him, and he somehow couldn't meet their gaze. He stared down at the floor, and ended up just looking at his hand. The symbol was still there, although it was beginning to fade into his skin again. He swallowed hard. "This can't be, though..."  
  
[This is why you have to tell us!] Slander explained in an almost pleading voice. [Since you are the blue firebird, you must know where your mate, the red firebird, and your child are. We need to find the Child of the Fire, so that all races can get a drop of its magic blood and we can beat back the Argothian threat!]  
  
[Many races have come together to try and form an alliance against the Argothians,] Yallus explained, [But there are so many disputes and miscommunications in meetings that we have never been able to really create a solid counterattack against them. If the ULR were to know that the legend is true and the Child of the Fire does exist, we could come together and completely annihilate the Argothian race before they do the same to us!]  
  
Mulder began to back away slightly. "But...I don't have a child! I would never be able to...I don't know where I could..."  
  
[You have a mate, do you not?]  
  
"Well, I..." Mulder stopped. How could he answer this? In almost all senses, he could consider Scully to be his "mate", except for the physical part. They were never officially mates, although he felt that both he and Scully considered themselves so on the inside. "I...sort of do...but I'm not sure if it counts. If not, then no."  
  
[Who?]  
  
"Scully," For some reason, Mulder found it more difficult for him to say her name out loud than it ever had been before. "Dana Scully."  
  
[I can tell you something right now,] Yallus said to Mulder decisively. [Just by looking at your face and listening to your voice, I can tell that she is your mate. It is the same way I used to be with Dermuli. She...Scully...is the red firebird.]  
  
"But this still can't be!" Mulder said desperately in what felt like defense. "Even if I was the blue firebird and Scully was the red one, there is no child! And there never could be...Scully can't have..."  
  
[Trust me,] Yallus looked Mulder in the eye. [If there is no child now, there soon will be. There has to be. You have the symbol on your hand; there is no denying that you ARE the blue firebird. If your Scully were to touch the mural that you found, she would have the mark, too. And where the two are, the third must be there, also.]  
  
Mulder's limbs suddenly seemed to fail him, and he felt like he could collapse at any moment. The implications of this were too much for him to comprehend, too great for him to understand. Out of nowhere, memories of some former life flashed through his mind...memories of Scully coming to him sick, having chills and getting dizzy, and conversations with her as he kept her warm in his bed...  
  
"I want to go home..." Mulder said in a small voice. "I...I can't stay here...I want, I NEED to go home, I need to see Scully..."  
  
[If we do get out of here...you can't come to the ULR headquarters first, to explain who you are?] Slander asked.  
  
"No, I can't go anywhere!" Mulder said in a daze. "I need to go home! I need to go home right now!"  
  
The three aliens exchanged nervous glances. Yallus looked down at the floor, then turned back to Mulder, her face set with determination. [I promised that I would get back at the Argothians for taking my family and my home...and the way I will to so is to assist the blue firebird in any way I can. We will help you get home.]  
  
Mulder managed a weak smile. He was still in shock, but he felt a comfort come from these strange friends he had made. "I could never be able to repay you if you were able to help me get home...but how would we do that? How could we get out of here?"  
  
[There should be smaller transports in a landing bay somewhere on the ship. Of course, we'd have to go through too many guards to get there. If we could do something that could somehow draw most of the Argothians aboard this ship into one spot, we could get to the landing bay and steal a transport. We just need a really good distraction.]  
  
Slander grinned micheviously. [I know just the one.]  
  
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox  
  
Mulder and his three comrades had been walking down endless, twisting halls for what had felt like hours, following Slander to some unknown destination. They had crossed paths with some guards and doctors more than once, but by quickly hiding behind large structures or in adjoining rooms they had been able to avoid detection. Nobody knew where they were going except Slander, and they all hoped he had a better idea on where they were than they did...  
  
[It's hard to remember exactly where we went...it's been so long since I've been outside...but I think I know where it is. I passed through it when they were first taking me to the firebird confinement room, and a bridge had collapsed or something, so we had to go a longer, different route.]  
  
"What exactly is it that were looking for?" Mulder questioned.  
  
As they reached the end of the hall, Slander came to a door and smiled. [This is what we're looking for. I knew I would find it sooner or later.] Slander punched the doorlock, and the door slid open to reveal darkness.  
  
[We're looking for a dark room?] Yallus said incredulously, obviously getting a little impatient.  
  
Slander responded to her question by searching around and finding the light switch. Floodlights that covered the ceiling suddenly flickered and came on, revealing a room about half the size of a football stadium. The room resembled a large warehouse, with long aisles filled with rows of...cages.  
  
Mulder stepped inside, and was completely at a loss for words. The cells in this room were small, stacked two or three high sometimes, and were made of a plastic-glass-like material. What astonished Mulder the most was that almost every cell held one alien, each one entirely different from the other.  
  
Mulder wandered into the room and down the aisles, staring from one cell to another, while Slander, Yallus and Tho filed in behind him. There were races here that were so unbelievable, so unimaginable that he could barely find words to describe them. One looked like a walking starfish, another like an eight-legged frog, and another like a palm tree with a mouth. There was a lava- like alien with its head floating in space, a large, shaggy creature with long, soft hair, an athletic humanoid-like alien with stripes, and a small, gray, bumpy creature resting on the head of a smooth, bluish, goat-like creature. Most of the other aliens were even more bizarre and unreal than these. Some of the aliens simply watched Mulder with deadpan expressions, while others got up and began pounding on the glass, making movements with their mouths, although Mulder could not hear them through the glass. Mulder slowly turned back to Slander with a look of shock. "Wh...what is this?"  
  
Slander responded to Mulder while searching the front wall for something. [A general holding area for races that have not been destroyed yet. Argothians abduct a sample or two of new races and then keep them here to test on them later.]  
  
"Why?"  
  
[To study their physiology,] Yallus answered angrily. [To find their strengths and weaknesses, so they will know how to best destroy them. Here there are Barshans, Luvans, Jefroans, Olvymoans and Allotibans-Coponans, to name just a few.]  
  
"So...what are we going to do with them?" Mulder asked.  
  
[This.]  
  
Slander had found what he had been looking for. On the wall he pulled down an enormous switch, and a loud alarm sounded out, reverberating through the ceiling and walls. And every single door on every single cell in the whole room flipped open, letting all of their occupants free.  
  
Mulder quickly scrambled back to where the others were as he was nearly trampled over by dozens of different races. They were making all sorts of noises, some of them actual words and some of them meaningless sounds, although Mulder barely tell the difference between them. There were all sorts of creatures running, hopping, flying, crawling and floating as far away from their prisons as possible, all trying to fit through the door. Slander gave a satisfied smile as all kinds of aliens filed out into the hall to spread throughout the ship. [If this isn't a diversion, then I don't know what is. It'll take hours for the Argothians to sort out this mess.]  
  
Mulder and his three friends suddenly turned around at the sound of what Mulder could only describe as a Tyrannosaurus Rex roaring underwater. From somewhere towards the back of the room there suddenly stood an enormous reptillian-like creature. The thing sported razor claws and teeth and a thick armor of tough spikes.  
  
[Oh no...] Yallus said in a frightened voice.  
  
"What is that thing?" Mulder asked.  
  
[It's a Manolinan!] Slander gulped.  
  
"What's a Manolinan?"  
  
[Oh, only the biggest, hungriest, most dangerous race ever known in the five sectors!] Yallus shouted. [What were the Argothians THINKING when they abducted that thing?!!]  
  
The huge Manolinan roared again and began to storm in their direction, smashing anything and anybody in its way beneath its clawed feet. By now, most of the other alien prisoners had exited the room, and they figured it was time for them to do so as well. Without saying a word, all five of them scrambled to get back through the door. Slander, the last one out, slammed on the doorlock and trapped the Manolinan inside the prison room. They could hear its muffled roars from behind the thick metal.  
  
But they soon discovered that they were now in a possibly worse situation than before. Slander's diversion had worked...the commotion had caused all of the guards and doctors on this level to come and investigate, and there was now a group of nearly 20 of them facing their group. They stood stiffly with matching faces and matching uniforms, with quite a few of them holding weapons that Mulder had never seen before.  
  
A strange sound caused Mulder to turn to his left. Yallus was breathing very heavily, almost growling, as she laid eyes on the creatures that had murdered her family and stolen her home. The hatred began to churn up the color in her eyes, and Mulder was suddenly very afraid of the Thybiran standing next to him.....  
  
Yallus stood challengingly at the front of the group and roared, [THE FIREBIRDS LIVE!! DEATH TO THE ARGOTHIAN RACE!!!]  
  
Five Argothians raised their guns at the group, but did not fire. This simple statement was a very effective weapon against them, and they were too frightened to do what they needed to do. Mulder was filled with amazement at seeing these men, who had been so solid , cold and unwavering whenever he saw them before, suddenly reduced to shivering, genuinely frightened creatures.  
  
Just at that moment, there came three heavy pounds on the door behind them. They had just enough time to turn around before the door was completely ripped out of its hinges, and the hungry and furious Manolinan charged out.  
  
Mulder instantly realized their problem. In front of them were 20 Argothians ready to shoot them down the moment they got over their fear. Behind them was one huge Manolinan, with an appetite big enough for them, the 20 Argothians and every other creature aboard the ship. (Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place...)  
  
But the Manolinan's appearance only served to their advantage. For now the Argothians were completely distracted by the Manolinan and turned all their attention to the snarling, spiked beast. Yallus grabbed her opportunity and instantly went into a rage. She jumped on one of the officers, beating him against the metal floor until he was knocked senseless. Yallus grabbed up the weapon the officer had been holding.  
  
Now Mulder understood what she had been talking about when she had mentioned wanting a real weapon. Yallus managed to fire two shots and take down one guard. Two enormous blasts of light came out of the gun sounding like snapping trees, and splattered the surrounding guards over with a shower of green blood from the one that had been shot. Several of the guards raised their hands in surrender. But Yallus didn't want surrender...she wanted revenge.  
  
"Yallus, don't!" Mulder stopped Yallus just before she was about to shoot again. She turned to him, and saw that he was covering his face with his hands. "Don't shoot any more of them, their blood is acidic to me!"  
  
As much as Yallus wanted to take down this Argothian scum, she instantly complied for Mulder's sake.  
  
[Hey, look out!] Slander's voice called out a warning. The group of five instantly scattered at the Manolinan that had been behind them charged forward, heading for the Argothian group. The others backed away as it grabbed up the wounded officer and instantly devoured it.  
  
As Mulder struggled to regain himself after dodging, he could hear one of the Argothian officers talking into a radio intercom. Even though the officer was speaking in his language, Mulder could still understand him with his translo. [Attention, we have an emergency on level 2! We have an emergency on level 2! We have a living Thybiran and at least 40 escaped test subjects, including a Manolinan. All workers and other personnel must come to level 2 immediately to assist in containment of the threat! Send instant communications to any other vehicles in this system and to the base transport!]  
  
"We need to get out of here!" Mulder exclaimed. "They're coming to get us!"  
  
Yallus stood and gazed up at the level over them. [We have to get to the control room...] She said decisively. [We have to stop them from sending communications to all their other ships. If word of what has happened gets outside these walls, then this mission is as good as over.]  
  
[We can't use the turbolifts!] Slander added. [All the Argothians are using them now. And they're coming for us!]  
  
Mulder did not like the sound of this. "Well, can't we find some stairs, or climb up all of this machinery or something?!"  
  
[That would take too long," Yallus groaned. "And we'd be easy targets for any gun-holding Argothians.]  
  
Slander stared up at the top level. [If only there was a way we could fly up there...]  
  
He could not have timed his wish better. Just at that moment, an enormous creature flew overhead, and Mulder realized that it was one of the aliens they had released from the prison room. It looked like a huge cross between a pegasus and an elephant, with large feathery wings and a long, trunk-like nose. There were small metal balls on chains attached to the thing's legs, and it took Mulder a minute to realize that they were some sort of jewelry. The creature circled above them, watching the great commotion below.  
  
Slander grinned. [Yes...an Elie-pogoan! I think this is just what we're looking for.] The Miman then raised his voice to the Elie-pogoan. [Hello, friend! Could you please come down here and help us?]  
  
Luckily, the Elie-pogoan understood Slander's chattering language, and it quickly descended to stand on the edge of the platform where they stood. [You are the four persons who released me and my fellow prisoners from our containment facilities, are you not?] It said.  
  
[Yes, we are.]  
  
The Elie-pogoan bowed to them in a servant-like manner. [I am called Trinita by relations both physical and emotional, and I am indebted to you because of your kindness towards me and my previous plight. Imply upon me any wish you might contain, and I shall quickly and efficiently carry out your wish to the best of my ability.]  
  
[Could you please take us up to the top level?] Slander asked.  
  
[Certainly. Please assemble yourselves onto my back as quickly as you are able, for I fear we may be experiencing troublesome company quite shortly.] The group turned around and saw what Trinita was referring to...the Manolinan was beginning to retreat under the pressure of heavy gunfire from the Argothians, and a few guards were starting to get past the beast and head for them.  
  
Yallus did not waste any time. [Alright, let's go!] She exclaimed and quickly climbed onto the Elie-pogoan's back. Slander and Tho followed her. Mulder was a little hesitant about boarding a giant flying pegasus-elephant-alien that spoke in long, elegant sentences. However, the thought of dozens of Argothians ready to kill him was not nearly enough to hold him back, and he climbed aboard alongside the others.  
  
Trinita stepped from the smoky platform and instantly sailed off into the open space. Mulder and his friends held on for dear life as the huge creature beat its wings against the air, propelling itself upwards. Several of the Argothian guards shot at them as they were flying up, but all their shots missed. Mulder stared down at the interior of the alien ship, knowing it would be a long and deadly drop down if he were to fall. From up high he could see masses of activity on the second level, as every Argothian on the ship swarmed to help as they had been directed over the radio intercom.  
  
The flight upwards seemed to last an eternity as thick air blasted them on all sides and a million different sounds echoed against the black metal walls. However, it was eventually over, and Trinita landed on the top floor of the ship. All of them could see a definite difference on this level. All of the architecture and machinery was smooth, modern, and very clean. Bright lights illuminated the level, unlike the dark, damp, rotting levels below. When Trinita touched the ground, the five climbed off, glad to be back on stable ground.  
  
[Is there any other service I can perform for my liberators?] Trinita asked.  
  
[Get off the ship,] Yallus warned. [Find someone who can fly a transport and get to safety.]  
  
Trinita could not understand Yallus's family language, so Slander translated for her. The Elie-pogoan gave a final farewell and thank-you, and flew off to do as she had been instructed.  
  
(That was certainly interesting...) Mulder thought to himself.  
  
Yallus did not waste a second. [Come on, we have to get to the control room right now! If they finish sending that communication to other ships, we're dead.]  
  
They ran down the hallway, passing through doors and passages that just seemed to lead to more doors. The loud sounds continued to drift up from the level below. Mulder wished that they were not running so that he could observe the magnificence of the ship on top, with its clean and modern furnishings that looked more like UFOs as portrayed on Earth.  
  
Before long, they came to a wide, lighted hallway that ended in two enormous, curved, black doors. It was clear that whatever was behind these doors was very large and very important. Yallus grinned. [This is it...this is our moment.]  
  
[What will we do?] Slander asked quietly.  
  
[We break in! If there are any that are armed, it won't be many, because they have no need for weapons in there. Tho can also provide a good distraction just by moving around.] The four of them moved in closer until they were all on either side of the two doors. Yallus got her weapon ready. [Alright, on my signal! One.....two.....three!!]  
  
With her last word, Yallus punched on the doorlock, and the two doors whipped open in an instant. The moment the doors were open, all four of them rushed inside.  
  
The moment Mulder got his first look, he was stopped dead in his tracks. The control room was not like anything he had ever seen before. There was a huge glass window that took up nearly half of the room, and through it Mulder could see thousands upon thousands of stars, all more clear and bright then he had ever seen before. He could also see some sort of planet nearby that resembled Uranus or Neptune, and the white bar of the Milky Way stretched like a rainbow over the vast reaches of space.  
  
The rest of the control room was almost as stunning as the stars outside. There were large screens and tesservids displaying charts, maps, photos and lists. There were also consoles and large, alien-looking computers that controlled everything the ship did and that could communicate with other ships light-years away. Dozens of officers were working at these consoles or were standing around talking. They were all dressed in uniform and they were all in their Argothian gray form. At the entrance of Mulder and his friends, they all stopped and stared at the invaders in complete shock.  
  
Yallus held her gun ready to shoot down any Argothian that moved. She stood defiantly at the front of the group and shouted, [STAY WHERE YOU ARE! YOU MOVE, YOU WILL BE SHOT!!]  
  
Although the Argothians far outnumbered their group, none of them were armed, for before there had never even been the possibility of needing weapons. The Argothian officers held out their hands in surrender, not even able to comprehend the idea of mere test subjects taking control of their ship. (They're not so tough when things aren't going their way,) Mulder thought.  
  
[Here, hold this gun,] Yallus suddenly said to Mulder. [If any one of them move, don't hesitate, just shoot them. That will keep them still.]  
  
"But I don't know how to use this thing!" Mulder whispered anxiously.  
  
[And they don't know that,] Yallus hissed. [You've got to keep them away while I fix this ship for good.]  
  
Mulder took the gun and kept it on the frightened and confused officers while Yallus headed for the external communication console. The Argothians didn't try to intervene, but it was apparent that they would jump to do so if given half the opportunity.  
  
Yallus knew that you didn't need to know much about a machine to destroy it. She instantly began flipping switches, pulling out connections and smashing screens to the horror of the officers.  
  
[You cannot do this!] One of them shouted angrily. Yallus simply ignored him and continued her rush of destruction. The control panels sparked and fizzed dangerously. Yallus stepped back as the console exploded into a ball of smoke and dust, and then lay cold and still. The Argothians were now unable to communicate with anyone outside of their ship.  
  
A sudden rumble caused everyone to stop and look around in surprise. Mulder's group instantly realized what the sound was...it was the ship's engines starting up. One of the officers had snuck to the engine console and had fired up the ship's first boosters. He stared threateningly at the five escaped test subjects... [We told you that you could not do this. You will be punished without mercy.]  
  
This warning did not phase the four escapees...they had gotten this far, and they weren't about to let anything stop them now. [Tho, put down their engines!!] Slander shouted suddenly.  
  
Tho was only too happy to oblige. The Bleebeean zoomed off across the control room, causing several Argothians to duck to avoid being hit. She went straight for the engine console and simply whizzed through it, putting holes in all of the equipment and causing sparks to fly. The Argothians tried to stop her, but they could barely keep track of where she was, much less capture her. As she finished destroying all of the equipment in nearly a fraction of the time that Yallus had, the sound of the engines died and the ship lurched harshly.  
  
Slander knew that there would be weapon-bearing Argothians here soon to take care of them, so he said, [Hey, you guys...it's not safe for us here. We have to leave!]  
  
They agreed, and headed for the door, their mission now complete. They exited the control room, and Yallus shot the doorlock to prevent the officers from quickly following them.  
  
"Now what?" Mulder asked.  
  
[Now we get the hell off this ship!] Yallus exclaimed, her voice full of excitement. [Come on, we've got to get to the parking bay.]  
  
The four of them started to run down the sleek halls. Doors and structures passed by them, but they did not stop at any of them. [Do you have any idea where we are going?] Slander questioned after a while of what seemed to be going nowhere.  
  
[Not real--]  
  
[THERE THEY ARE!]  
  
Just as the group rounded a corner, they met head-on with a large gang of Argothian guards that had been summoned up to this level. The biggest problem was that most of them had a large weapon of some kind. [Other way!] Yallus exclaimed, and all five of them simultaneously turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction. The sounds of the armed guards chasing them motivated them to double their speed.  
  
Their only lucky break was that they headed into several hallways that branched off into multiple passages. While they could head down one, the guards would split up into all of them. They kept going through these branched conjunctions until they were finally able to lose the guards completely. They stopped to rest outside another black door, all of them panting for breath.  
  
[Well, now we lost them...] Slander sighed, [but we still have no idea were the parking bay is.]  
  
Yallus tried to hide her frustration at the situation they were in. [We'll just have to keep looking. Come on, it's not safe to stay still.] She stood up and punched on the doorlock.  
  
The door opened to reveal a sight that made all of them instantly believe in fate. The room before them was the size of several football fields and resembled an aircraft carrier. There were several rows of small, two-person transports that to Mulder looked like something out of "Star Wars." All of the transports were black, smooth, and about the size of small fighting jets. As far as they could tell, there was no one in the parking bay, as all of the workers had gone to the crisis below. The parking bay was open to the vacuum of space except for a thin, greenish film that reminded Mulder of saran wrap. This film covered the entire open area, and Mulder guessed that it allowed ships to pass through without causing a vacuum.  
  
Yallus suddenly turned to Mulder. [Do you know how to fly an Argothian sky attack gunner?]  
  
"I can't even fly an aircraft from my own planet!" Mulder protested.  
  
[Then I'll fly it. Come on, let's get you one...]  
  
"Wait a minute, Yallus, what do you mean, fly it? Fly me where?"  
  
[Why, back to your homeworld, of course! Unless you suddenly changed your mind and want to go to the ULR headquarters after all...]  
  
"Wait a minute, you can't come with me to Earth!" Mulder said insistently. "My people won't accept you! They'll be afraid of you and want to study you..."  
  
[Look, I promised I was going to serve the blue firebird in any way that I could. You need to return to your homeworld, so I shall bring you back. If you want, I can drop you off and then leave again.]  
  
Mulder stood still for a little while, and then his face broke into a huge smile...the first time he had smiled in what felt like years. "Thank you, Yallus."  
  
[I'll take my own transport,] Slander spoke up, [and I'll take Tho back to her home.]  
  
Mulder gazed with a strange regret at the other two...regret that he had to leave his friends that he had known so briefly, but had done so much for him. "I wish that we didn't have to go separate ways...I wish that people on my planet would behave differently so that you could come with me."  
  
[We wish you all the luck in the universe, blue firebird,] Slander responded. [We are depending on you. Please try and contact us.]  
  
"I'll try," Mulder sighed. "I don't know how, but I'll try."  
  
[Farewell!]  
  
With that, Slander and Tho went into one sky attack gunner, while Yallus and Mulder went for their own. The Thybiran opened a door on one side of the ship, and it opened upwards and outwards. Mulder looked carefully over the well-kept interior, and then followed Yallus through a small door into the cockpit. The cockpit had two seats side by side lined with some plush material, and one side looked like it was meant for navigation while the other was meant for targeting. The could clearly see the parking bay and the stars through a large glass window that extended up over their heads.  
  
[I'll take the driver's seat, you get in the gunner's seat. Make sure you strap yourself in, these things usually have a bad jerk reaction to lightdrive boosters.]  
  
Mulder didn't even both asking what lightdrive boosters were. He just sat down in his seat and pulled the double straps together around his body, looking over the machinery that was in front of him.  
  
[Oh, damn...]  
  
Mulder was about to ask what was the matter when he saw it as well. The Argothians had finally caught up to them, and scores of them were pouring into the parking bay, all of them armed.  
  
[Quick, I'll start the engines up! You take care of them!] Yallus ordered.  
  
"What do I do?!"  
  
[You're in the gunner's seat...use a GUN!]  
  
Mulder frantically searched around for anything in front of him that could be a trigger button. Everything was a mess of computers and buttons and levers that he had no clue how to operate. Meanwhile, Yallus was frantically flipping switches and turning on computers. A deep hum started somewhere behind them, and Mulder felt the ship lurch as it lifted off the ground.  
  
[Let's see...engines one and two on, primary battery working, lightdrive engine ready, landing gear retracted...don't just sit there, Mulder! Shoot them!!]  
  
Mulder punched a few buttons, and a tesservid displaying a targeting grid popped up in front of him. Feeling a video-game excitement build up inside him, he grabbed what looked like an alien joystick and pressed the fire button.  
  
Instantly, two bolts of light shot out of cannons on the underside of the ship and blasted two Argothians right out of existence. Mulder gave an excited whoop at his victory.  
  
[Shields are full!] Yallus announced. She couldn't have said it sooner, for the Argothians had already started firing at them. Their gunfire was simply absorbed into the shields and added to their power.  
  
Mulder watched as the ship taken by Slander and Tho took off and passed through the film layer like an object passing through a waterfall. Then they were moving forward, watching the Argothians below them yelling and shooting in anger. They also passed through the pressure film, and were surrounded on all sides by a multitude of stars celebrating their escape.  
  
For a brief moment, neither Mulder nor Yallus could speak, they were too shocked to say anything. But the farther they sped away from the huge Argothian ship, the more difficult it became for them to contain their excitement.  
  
Suddenly, Yallus let out a long victory screech, and raised her fists to the sky. [Look at me! You're looking at the last Thybiran this universe will ever see...and she's FREEEE!!!]  
  
"We did it!" Mulder shouted, feeling his body quiver with an energy that he could only describe as freedom. He had never truly felt it before...although he had lived in a free country all his life, he had never truly been able to understand what freedom meant until now. "We got away! I'm...I'm going home!"  
  
[Let's do it!] Yallus exclaimed, and pulled down on one large lever. [Engaging lightdrive.]  
  
Mulder barely felt it when the attack gunner jumped from a cruising speed to going faster than the speed of light. There was only one thought in his mind...(Scully...I'm coming home.)  
  
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
One of Jupiter's small moons watched in silence as a streak of light whizzed by and was then gone, moving faster than the light of the stars that thickly covered the reaches of space. The streak of light was in fact a single Argothian sky attack gunner, heading in the direction of a small blue planet that was third from this system's sun.  
  
Mulder was fast asleep in the gunner's seat, completely exhausted at the amazing ordeal he had been through. This plush seat was the first soft thing he had gotten to lay on in what felt like decades,Êand he had had no trouble falling asleep in it.  
  
Yallus Tallo, meanwhile, was awake and alert. She watched the stars speed by them in a whitish blur and continuously checked the tesservid map to make sure that they were on the right path. She was finally starting to relax, and propped her feet up on the dashboard. She stared at the oil and dirt that nearly coated her red, feathery toes...(I can't wait to wash myself up.)  
  
BOOP BOOP BOOP BOOP BOOP BOOP BOOP BOOP BOOP...  
  
Yallus sat up suddenly as she heard one of the ship's warning lights come on, accompanied by its tiny siren. Yallus pressed the button, wondering what the problem could be...  
  
A tesservid image popped up, displaying a funnel-shaped structure with a substance inside. She stared at it for a minute, and her expression dropped into a frown. [Uuuuugh...damn Argothian TRASH!!]  
  
"Wha!--" Mulder's eyes snapped open and he lunged forward in his seat, but the seat straps restrained him.  
  
[Oh...I'm sorry to wake you, Mulder,] Yallus sighed.  
  
"Don't worry about it." Mulder yawned and stretched, hearing his body crack in several different places. He focused his vision, and saw the stars were still blurring past them. He found it incredibly strange that he could be moving faster then the speed of light and still be talking and acting normally. "What's the matter?"  
  
[This,] Yallus motioned at the image of the quarter-full funnel. [We've only got a quarter-tank of chark left.]  
  
"What's chark?"  
  
[It's a liquid fuel source,] She explained. [The Argothians discovered a planet full of the stuff and it's their main fuel source for ships and transports.]  
  
Mulder felt his lungs expand with panic. "Do we have enough to get back to Earth?!"  
  
[Oh, we have plenty enough to reach your homeworld...just not nearly enough for me to get back to the nearest friendly outpost.]  
  
Mulder let the information sink in slowly, and he looked at Yallus worriedly. "But...what can we do?"  
  
[Nothing,] Yallus sighed. [I'll just stay with you on your homeworld for awhile. It's not like I have a home to go back to, anyway.]  
  
"Yallus, my people won't accept you!" Mulder insisted. "They've never seen anything like you before. They'll want to hurt you, test on you, kill you..." He paused, feeling a knot form in his throat. "They'll treat you like the Argothians did."  
  
Yallus didn't seem nearly as concerned as Mulder was. [It's not like we have much of a choice, anyway. What's important is that we get you back home, and that's what we're going to do. Perhaps we'll be able to find another fuel source like chark on your homeworld and I can leave again.]  
  
Mulder was about to protest again, when he realized that Yallus was right and he changed his mind. "How close are we?" He finally asked.  
  
[Very close,] Yallus said. She switched on a navigation tesservid, and it projected a map image of their position in the solar system. [We're passing the fourth planet from your sun.]  
  
"Mars," Mulder said, his body tense with excitement. The concept that he was traveling past Mars wasn't nearly as amazing as the concept that he was returning home. He instantly began to plan out what they would do once they got back to Earth. "We'll get to a pay phone and try to call Scully, and if she's not there I can try Skinner or the Lone Gunmen. But first I'll have to find something to conceal you. Then you can stay in my apartment until I find Scully, and I'll bring her back and explain everything!"  
  
[Will she believe what you say? From the way you describe your people, most of your peers would think you were mad if you said you were aboard an Argothian ship.]  
  
"They already think that."  
  
[Do you have any concept of how long you have been gone?]  
  
Mulder stopped. He hadn't thought about that. He had had no concept of hours or days when he had been abducted...time had been measured in schedules. He could have been gone days or years, he didn't know. He just hoped that it wasn't the latter.  
  
[Alright, we're coming up to your homeworld,] Yallus announced. [I'm switching off the lightdrive.] The Thybiran pulled back on a lever, and the blur of stars switched back to the normal spots of light. And instantly, the Earth took up nearly all of the window view, and Mulder could see all of the Northern Hemisphere stretched out before him. An atmosphere of white clouds covered the splotches of brown, green and deep blue that covered the planet's surface.  
  
Mulder couldn't help but laugh out loud. "This is it! It's Earth..." He shook his head at the sight. "Wow...it's beautiful."  
  
Yallus nodded. [I have to admit, from a distance I like this color arrangement.]  
  
"We have to land in a certain spot," Mulder said. "Can you do that?"  
  
[I can program the computer to settle us down up to 1000 kilostarps from the surface,] She said, using an unknown unit of measurement. [But after that I have to do some tricky manual flying.]  
  
"We need to land somewhere outside the Washington D.C. area," Mulder instructed. "That's my country's capital. It's very densely populated, but we need to land in an area where there are more trees so people don't see the ship."  
  
[Where on your homeworld is the Washington D.C. area?]  
  
"Umm...it's on the far eastern side of the United States, which is a country in the northern, western hemisphere. Although I guess directions like north and west don't really apply in space...just keep going towards that landmass right there. I'll keep directing you the closer we get."  
  
By now, they were very close to the Earth, and the planet took up all the space in their glass window. Yallus began to prepare for their descent onto land. [Okay, you have an oxygen- based atmosphere, I am assuming, so we're putting up heat shields...air debris reflectors up...landing gear is okay...]  
  
"Do you have a cloaking device?" Mulder asked suddenly. "We can't let anyone see this ship."  
  
Yallus was getting a little annoyed with the extreme secrecy of their arrival. [Alright then...cloak is activated.]  
  
The Argothian sky attack gunner then hit Earth's atmosphere. The two occupants held on to their seats tightly as the ship rattled and jolted dangerously against air currents and heat. For a long time they couldn't see anything in front of them except thick yellow and white clouds flashing by them.  
  
Then the attack gunner broke free of the outer atmosphere, and they could see both land and sea below them. Mulder continued to direct Yallus downward until they were over the United States, and then the east coast, and then over D.C. Mulder could even pick out some large buildings. (All those people down there who thought I was crazy...and all they have to do is look up above them,) Mulder grinned.  
  
The nearest forest area was not as close as Mulder would have liked, but he still did not want to take any chances. Yallus turned off the automatic pilot and grabbed at a small steering- wheel device to land the gunner manually. Mulder gripped his seat to steady himself as the Thybiran maneuvered the ship down towards the ground and then around trees, looking for an open space large enough for them to land. At last there appeared a fairly large clearing in the middle of the woods. She positioned the ship above the open space and then lowered it slowly, smoke hissing from its exhausts. The ship gave a final jolt as it touched earth, and then Yallus turned the engines off.  
  
For a moment, everything was completely silent.  
  
Then Mulder felt a sudden desire to get outside. He didn't just want to see his home through glass...he wanted to hear it, to feel it, to breathe it. After so long a time spent in the cold, dark, thick misery of the operating room, all he wanted to do was fill his lungs with the fresh, warm smell of the planet Earth.  
  
He and Yallus exited the gunner, and the first thing Mulder saw was the blurry, aged-glass-look of the ship's energy cloak. He rushed to get outside it and see the world completely. That blasted energy field had been the last thing he saw before he had been abducted, and it was the thing that had first gotten him into this mess, anyhow. Mulder and Yallus stepped through the energy field, feeling their bodies jump and jolt for just an instant as they did.  
  
Once they were outside, Mulder stared with a huge grin at the scores of trees that surrounded him on all sides. "This is my home, Yallus!" He said, his voice filled to the brim with happiness. "What do you think?"  
  
Yallus smelled the air. [It is no Arethia...but I can certainly understand how one can become attached to it.]  
  
"I don't think I've ever enjoyed it as much as I am now."  
  
Yallus gave Mulder a smile. [You've found your home once again, blue firebird...it's time to reunite you with your mate.]  
  
Mulder couldn't have agreed more. With that, both Human and Thybiran began their journey off into the trees.  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
"Let's see...that's one extra-extra-large hooded robe, one pair of extra-large loose-fit jeans, one pair of elbow-length black gloves, one pair of of knee-high size 23 boots...will there be anything else?" The store clerk gave Mulder an odd look.  
  
"No, I think that's it," Mulder dumped all of the money he had been holding in his fist onto the counter. He could only imagine what he must look like...dressed in a dirty gray shirt and pants, his hair completely messed up, his skin coated over with oil and muck, not to mention the numerous unsightly scars from the tests that graced his body. It was a wonder they had let him into the store without any shoes. (I get back to Earth after spending who-knows-how-long being tested on in an alien ship, and the first thing I do is go and buy clothes. How American of me...)  
  
Their walk out of the woods had been good for them, but had taken quite awhile. Whenever a bird or small animal would appear for them to see, Mulder would point it out and show it to Yallus. After several hours, they had emerged from the woods to find a small highway.  
  
Mulder had made Yallus hide back in the woods, and told her to wait until he flagged down a certain vehicle. Then he would get in the front and she would jump in the back and hide herself. That certain vehicle was a pickup truck, and Mulder didn't have to wait very long before one came along down the highway. As soon as the driver agreed to give Mulder a ride, Yallus climbed into the back and hid herself beneath an old piece of tarp.  
  
The truck driver was obviously just a little bit out of it, and Mulder had had no trouble persuading the man to drive him all the way to the nearest town as well as loan him a good sum of money. Once they reached a small town called Shiresville, Yallus had hidden in a back alley again while Mulder had gone into a small store to buy coverings for her.  
  
Now the store clerk tied up the clothes in a bag for him, and then handed him back his change. She looked at Mulder again quizzically, and then asked, "What is that thing in your ear?"  
  
Mulder was confused for a minute, and then realized that he was still wearing his translo. He had become so used to it that he had completely forgotten he had it, and it must have looked incredibly strange to others. "Oh! Uhh...new hearing aid," He answered. He grabbed the clothes and change before the clerk could ask him any more questions.  
  
Mulder stepped around the back side of the store until he came to a door that led to a back storeroom. He went inside, shutting the door behind him. He turned on the light, and saw Yallus looking rather annoyed.  
  
[I spend who-knows-how-long in a dark room doing nothing, I escape, and then what do I do? I spend who-knows-how-long in a dark room doing nothing!] She snorted.  
  
"Trust me, you would much prefer doing this to what could happen to you otherwise." Mulder took the clothes he had bought out of their bag. "Put these on. And make sure you pull the hood all the way over your head so no one can see your beak. This way we can actually walk down the street without everyone staring at us, although we're still going to keep to the sidelines as much as possible."  
  
Yallus fumbled around with the clothes, trying to figure out how she could wear these. She pulled on the boots, trying to fit her oddly-shaped feet and ankle feathers into these bothersome articles. The pants fit well enough, and so did the gloves, although since Yallus had only four fingers on each hand she was left with a bit of extra glove material. The robe was the most trouble...her long, extending shoulder feathers were somewhat stiff, so she had to find a way to bend them down against her back just to get the robe over her head. Then she pulled the hood as far as she could over her face, so that the only way anyone could see something was if they looked directly into the hood.  
  
Mulder stepped back to look at her and had to stifle a laugh...she looked like a cross between a monk and a motorcyclist, if such a thing was possible. He saw her glare at him from within the hood. [Wherever your Scully is, I suggest we find her quickly, otherwise I may be forced to burn this outfit so that I may never see it again.]  
  
Mulder sighed. "Come on, then...I think I can reach Scully pretty quickly."  
  
As it turned out, Mulder did not reach Scully as quickly as he would have liked. He and Yallus went to the nearest pay phone, and Mulder used some of his change to call Scully's home. She had not been home, and Mulder did not bother to leave a message on the machine. Next he had tried calling their office number, assuming that she might still be at work, but there had been no answer there, either. Mulder had also tried calling Skinner's number, hoping that Skinner could pick them up and take them to Scully, but he wasn't there, either. Getting desperate, Mulder had finally called the Lone Gunmen, but of course there had been no answer. Mulder was confused and just slightly worried at this strange absence of all the people he knew...especially Scully. (Where could she be if she wasn't at the office and wasn't at home?...)  
  
Mulder had used the last of his change to barely get him and Yallus a cab ride back to D.C., although the cab driver had been somewhat suspicious of the strangely-dressed Yallus. When the cab had refused to take them further on what they had paid, they walked the rest of the way, keeping to alleys and trying to avoid the public as much as possible. By now it was late afternoon, and the sun was beginning to sink into the west. They finally arrived at Mulder's apartment around 5:00, and headed in to his room.  
  
Mulder felt incredibly strange walking down the hall to his familiar #42...he felt like he had not been gone a day, and that everything was exactly the way he left it. He could instantly recognize the creaks in the boards, and the numbers on the doors. He could even recognize the smell of the carpet. Neither he nor Yallus said anything until they stopped in front of #42.  
  
Mulder twisted the doorknob...it was locked. He suddenly was struck with a bolt of panic...(what if I've been gone a very long time and somebody else got my apartment?!)  
  
[Don't worry about this, I can fix it.] Yallus instantly solved his problem for him. She reached inside her robe and dug around inside one of her many pouches until she came upon a piece of twisted metal left over when she had taken her intel-calic apart. She used the metal piece to pick the lock on the front door, and in no time at all they heard the bolt unlock.  
  
The front door creaked eerily as they opened it and stepped inside. Mulder was overcome with a relieved confusion as he realized that all of his furniture was still there...nothing had been touched.  
  
[Rather small...] Yallus commented. She immediately removed her annoying coverings and dropped them on the floor.  
  
Mulder moved forward very slowly, feeling strange being here. Everything looked kept after...the fish were still alive, at least. Although there was quite a tick dust layer over most of the furniture, he could tell that someone had been here recently. He walked to his desk as something caught his eye...it was his small desk calendar. The date on the calendar was July 17th. At first Mulder thought that he had only been gone for two months, but upon closer inspection he realized that the calendar was for the year 2001.  
  
Mulder had to swallow down a large lump in his throat before he could speak. "I...I've been gone for almost 14 months!"  
  
Yallus heard his comment. [How long is a month? Tell me in terms of days or years.]  
  
"A month is about 30 days; there are 12 months in a year," Mulder said, sounding as if he were on autopilot. He was relieved that he hadn't been gone for decades, but he also knew that a lot could happen in 14 months. What puzzled Mulder even further was that had a 2001 calendar at all...that meant that someone had been keeping track of the passage of time in his apartment; even enough to go out and buy him a new calendar. "Scully's been taking care of my home," Mulder said suddenly.  
  
[I suppose you're thankful for that,] Yallus mused.  
  
Mulder then went from his living room to his bedroom, wanting to see the rest of his house. Surprisingly, his bed was unmade...it was the same way as when the morning he left. He felt like he had come home to a museum...everything was untouched, only time had changed. Mulder sat down on his bed carefully, soaking in the unfamiliar feelings that surrounded him.  
  
Yallus walked into the bedroom and gave Mulder a look. It was apparent that the thick reverence of memories was getting to her as well. [Where is the red firebird?]  
  
Mulder looked back up to Yallus. At first he was confused by her question, but then he remembered what the name meant. "Right now? I'm not sure. But the first place I'm going to look is our office at the FBI."  
  
[FBI? What's that?]  
  
"Federal Bureau of Investigation...it's one of our law enforcement agencies."  
  
[You're in law enforcement?] Yallus said quietly. [Strange...so was Dermuli.]  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
[I was an architect until I had Dilchi.]  
  
"Then what were you?"  
  
[A mother.]  
  
The word 'mother' brought back the reminder of the firebird legend. In their journey from the Argothian ship to his apartment, the importance of the legend had almost completely left Mulder's mind.  
  
Mulder stood. "I'm going to go find Scully," he said decisively. "You stay here and wait for me to return. Keep away from the windows, and don't open the door for anyone."  
  
[What about you?]  
  
Mulder thought. "I'll knock three times slowly on the door. When you hear that, you'll know it's me and you can let me in."  
  
[I still don't like standing around here by myself while you go out and do everything without me,] Yallus grumbled.  
  
"Look, Yallus, you're my friend, and I don't want to see anything happen to you. Do this for me and I promise you won't regret it." Mulder found it somewhat ironic that he was doing this with Yallus. Before he would have gladly exposed a living alien to the public, just to prove to everyone that he had been right all along. But now after he had met and become friends with an alien, he was completely unwilling to endanger her life for his own convictions. (If only I had always been the same way with Scully.....)  
  
Mulder then pulled on a pair of shoes, grabbed some cash he had in a drawer, and left Yallus alone in his apartment.  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
Mulder crept around the back of the FBI building quietly, making sure that no one could see him well. Mulder did not even try to go in through the front door...there was no telling what sort of reaction he would get if he just showed up at the FBI after over a year. He figured he could possibly catch Scully in their office, and he hoped that was where she was. He knew there was a very small window in their office looking outside, and if he could drop down through that he could see her instantly. He just hoped that when he had called her at the office that she had simply been out getting coffee or something, and that she had since then returned.  
  
After a good deal of searching around through the back alley passages of the FBI building, he found the small window that he sought. Looking down through it, Mulder could not see much. He pushed against it, and luckily found it unlocked.  
  
He pushed the window the rest of the way open, giving him just enough room to squeeze his body through. He pushed himself feet-first through the window, and then landed on the ground next to his desk.  
  
Mulder felt his heart swell with the anticipation of seeing Scully...but a quick glance around the office revealed to him that she was not there. Mulder stood, rooted to where he was, and studied the office in detail. Most of the things here were still the same...his desk was still here, his posters and newspaper clippings were still up, and his beloved X-File cabinets were still present. But a few things were different...there was another desk in the room, and little nicer-kept than his own desk. There were files and folders piled all over the place, which was typical. But somehow...Mulder wasn't sure if he liked the way he felt here. His office, his home away from home, felt tainted and somewhat reassembled. (You've just been gone for so long you're not used to being here,) He told himself. (You just need to see Scully and then everything will make sense again.)  
  
But Scully was not here, and Mulder was not sure what to do next. Mulder did not feel comfortable going up above to where the whole FBI could see him. (Should I try her house again? What if she's out on a case or something?)  
  
Mulder's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone coming down the hall towards him, and he could tell just by the rhythm of their shoes that it was not Scully. Mulder panicked...there wasn't anywhere he could hide, and his only way out was through the window again...  
  
Then Mulder didn't have time to think anymore, for the person appeared in the door.  
  
It was a male agent. The agent was tall and grim-looking, with gray-blue eyes and brownish-gray hair. He looked like something out of the military. The agent was carrying nothing except a single cup of coffee.  
  
When he saw Mulder, he stopped cold, as if he had suddenly been put in suspended animation. Mulder watched him with puzzlement as his eyes widened with unspeakable shock, and his face became as white and dry as chalk. The cup of coffee slipped from between his frozen fingers and splattered all over the floor. The man mustered up all the living energy left in him to take a single step backwards.  
  
"A...A...Ag...Agent M...M...Muh..."  
  
"Who are you?" Mulder asked.  
  
"M...Mulder?"  
  
Again, "Who are you?"  
  
The agent took a few careful steps into the office, looking as if he entered a horrible curse might be placed upon him. "Is that...you?"  
  
"I'm Mulder! What are you doing here? Do you know where Scully is?"  
  
The agent's face dropped into something between horror and sorrow...he looked like he was about to cry. "Are...are you alright?" He said slowly.  
  
"I'm okay now," Mulder said, beginning to get a little confused with the way this man was acting. "But who are you?"  
  
"My name is Agent John Doggett," he said, and took a few more steps into the office.  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"I...I'm Agent Scully's partner."  
  
"No you're not. I'm her partner."  
  
"Not since you left," Doggett said.  
  
Mulder felt his insides twitch at seeing this man say he was Scully's partner...he didn't seem right for her. He seemed too strict, too stern, too informal. He had to find out what had happened from Scully herself. "Where is Scully?"  
  
"She's gone."  
  
"Where did she go?"  
  
No response.  
  
"Where did she go?!"  
  
Doggett's answer was sad. "I don't know."  
  
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox  
  
Mulder sat in his office chair without saying anything while Doggett quietly cleaned up the coffee spilt on the floor. Mulder was deep in thought...he couldn't even imagine what had happened to Scully. His skin pricked and his chest ached, and for just a moment he felt like he was back in the operating room again. (All this way...and she's not even here...)  
  
Doggett finished cleaning up the coffee and turned to Mulder. "Do you realize that you have been gone for over a year, Agent Mulder?" He said quietly.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Where were you?"  
  
Mulder looked at him carefully. "Would you believe me if I told you?"  
  
Doggett sighed. "When I was first partnered with Agent Scully, I found her ideas and theories to be ridiculous. I didn't disagree with everything she said, but I was always more skeptical than she was. Now...I'm not sure. I don't know if I'll ever be sure. Tell me."  
  
Mulder hesitated before speaking. "I was in an alien spaceship somewhere on the edge of this solar system."  
  
Mulder couldn't tell whether Doggett was angry or relieved by what he said. "I don't believe that's true, Agent Mulder," Doggett responded. "But I don't want to argue with it right now."  
  
Mulder, however, felt like arguing. "Why would I say that if it wasn't the truth?"  
  
"Any number of reasons...I don't know!" Doggett held up his hands in frustration. "What am I supposed to think, here? You up and disappear, and you're gone for over a year. And then you just reappear in your office as if nothing ever happened?! Things changed, Agent Mulder...a lot of things changed."  
  
"Why isn't Scully here?" Mulder demanded, his voice tightening with anxiety.  
  
"She just...disappeared," Doggett said slowly, as if he could hardly believe it himself. "She had already stopped coming to work because of personal reasons, but she made sure to call me every day. Then one day, there was no call. I assumed that she was very busy and had forgotten...but three more days went by and she still didn't call. I was worried about her, so I went to her house to check up on her. But...she wasn't there! She was completely gone, and so was...." Doggett stopped suddenly.  
  
"So was who?"  
  
"He...her car," Doggett breathed carefully in a voice that Mulder was instantly suspicious of. "Wherever she went, she took her car and quite a few of her belongings." Doggett looked at Mulder sadly. "Nobody has seen her for almost two months."  
  
"Almost two months?!!" Mulder blurted, and stood up. "This is the FBI! Why didn't they start looking for her?!"  
  
"She was technically off-duty when she disappeared. There has been some search, but not a very extensive one. A.D. Skinner and those friends of yours, the Lone Gunmen, have spent nearly all of their time looking for her. Skinner said he would be checking up with me whenever he got back here today...that should be soon."  
  
Doggett could not have timed it better. Just at that moment, the phone on the desk started ringing. Mulder and Doggett exchanged glances, and then Doggett picked up the phone. "Yes?"  
  
"Agent Doggett? This is Skinner, I'm..."  
  
Doggett took a deep breath. "Sir, before you say anything, I have a situation down here that you need to attend to."  
  
"What? Did you find Scully?"  
  
"No sir...but you need to come down here right away."  
  
"I'll be down there."  
  
Doggett hung up the phone and turned to Mulder. "Skinner's coming."  
  
"I heard."  
  
There was a silence.  
  
"So you have no idea where she went?" Mulder persisted. "She didn't leave any note, or clue, or anything?"  
  
"Well..." Doggett swallowed and cleared his throat. "It appeared like there had been some sort of struggle in his home. We found some blood on the carpet. We analyzed it and it's not hers, but..."  
  
Mulder did not want to hear anymore. He felt sick, exhausted, wanting to escape from this nightmare and find Scully. He felt like he had been trying to "escape" from something all his life, and he would never get to where he needed to be. "I need to find her..." He said softly.  
  
Both men looked up at the sound of footsteps in the hall. Skinner came into the doorway and stopped cold the same way Doggett had. Mulder gave Skinner a sad smile.  
  
"I found him, sir," Doggett said. "Or rather, he found me."  
  
"Agent...Mulder?" Skinner said in a choking voice, his body beginning to tremble. He got over his shock much quicker than Doggett had, and he rushed over to Mulder, just to see if he was real.  
  
Mulder stood and faced him. "Good to see you again, sir."  
  
"Are you...are you hurt? Are you okay? You aren't..."  
  
"I'm okay now, I just need to see Scully..."  
  
Skinner couldn't refrain himself any longer, and he embraced Mulder tightly. Mulder felt Skinner's body shudder with each breath, and all Mulder could do was hold him back. Skinner gulped, "I saw...I saw you get taken...and I didn't..."  
  
"I escaped...I got away."  
  
"I'm so sorry...I'm sorry I lost you...I'm..."  
  
"I want to find Scully," Mulder pulled away from Skinner. "I came back and now she's not here...I don't know what to do."  
  
Skinner was silent for a moment, and then he appeared hopeful. "I think we can find Scully now!"  
  
"How?!" Mulder felt his heartbeat triple.  
  
"We don't know where Scully went," Skinner said, "but her mother does. Apparently, she was the last one to see Scully before she left. We tried asking her, but she refuses to give us a single word on where Scully could be. She won't say why, either. But now that you're here...she might change her mind and tell us something!"  
  
Mulder's face brightened at the thought that someone might know where Scully was, and he gripped Skinner's hands excitedly. "Take me to her right now!"  
  
Skinner was not as eager to do so quite yet. "Hold it, Mulder! You haven't explained anything to us yet! Where have you been for this past year? How did you get back? Do you remember anything, did they do anything to you?..."  
  
His past year spent in the operating room was the last thing Mulder wanted to remember right now. "I'll...I'll tell you on the way. All I want now is to see Scully."  
  
Something suddenly came to Skinner's mind, and he bit his lip and looked at Doggett questioningly. Doggett gave Skinner back a look that apparently answered his silent question. Skinner looked at Mulder again, and sighed. "This is all very hard to register, Mulder...most of us thought that you would never be seen again."  
  
Mulder looked at the floor, and then back at Skinner. "I guess I could say the same for you, sir, and everyone I know."  
  
Skinner could tell that Mulder's past experiences were something that he could not talk about easily. "I'll call the Lone Gunmen," he said, "and we'll go to Mrs. Scully's house. You can say whatever you want to on the way."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
Mulder sat in the front seat of the Gunmen's Volkswagen van as it rolled through suburban streets to its place of destination. Skinner was driving the van, while Doggett and the three Lone Gunmen sat in the back. When the Lone Gunmen had returned from whatever corner of D.C. they had been in and had seen Mulder, they had been too shocked to say anything for two minutes. Frohike had almost burst into tears. Each of them had demanded the same things of Mulder as Skinner had. Mulder did not bother to even try and explain anything until they were in the van on the way to Maggie's home. He talked very briefly about his past year or so adhering to the schedules time after time, but he did not go into detail on the tests...the scars all over his body told their story well enough. Mulder tried to describe his escape to them, but it was clear that none of them really understood what he was talking about. The terms 'Argothian', 'translo', 'optrom', 'tesservid', 'Manolinan' and 'attack gunner'' made no sense to them whatsoever.  
  
"So let me get this straight..." Frohike said after Mulder had told his story. "You escaped from wherever you were, found a glowing wall, got caught and thrown back in prison, made friends with a bird, a rat and a bouncy-ball, escaped again, fought 20 guys with guns and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, flew on a flying elephant, broke somebody's radio, and then flew back to Earth in some sort of mini UFO?"  
  
"It was a bit more complicated than that," Mulder said. He had not bothered to mention the firebird legend to them...he knew they wouldn't come close to understanding what it could mean. He could barely understand it himself. He began to wonder exactly how he would explain it to Scully when he saw her again. Yallus's words kept coming to mind...(where the two are, the third must be also.)  
  
(How would I convince her to do this? To have a child with me? How do I explain that we need to do it...in order to fill this ancient alien legend and save the universe?) He almost laughed aloud at the thought.  
  
Mulder suddenly jumped back to the present as Doggett responded to Mulder's previous comment. "Forgive me, Agent Mulder, but I still have to say that all of that sounds too incredible for me to believe."  
  
Mulder was getting a little tired of this Agent Doggett. "Then what do you think, since you seem to be so sure that what I've said isn't the truth?" Mulder said, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.  
  
"I didn't say it was a lie. It could be that you perhaps believe it to be the truth. It is obvious that someone took you against your will, and apparent that they operated on you. But whoever took you could have implanted any number of ideas into your head to make you believe what they want you to believe. What's important is that we find the people who took you and why."  
  
"I already know who took me and why they did," Mulder said decisively. "That's not what's important right now. What's important is that we find Scully."  
  
"We're getting there," Skinner said as he turned the van around the last corner. They drove down the street a little ways before stopping in front of a small brick house; the home of Maggie Scully.  
  
"You stay behind us," Skinner told Mulder. "It would probably be best if you weren't the first person to see if she answered the door."  
  
Mulder agreed, and stood towards the back as the small party made its way up to Maggie's front door. Skinner rang the doorbell, and Mulder felt his body tense with anticipation...he was one step closer to being reunited with Scully.  
  
Maggie answered the door with a smile, but when she saw Skinner, Doggett and the Lone Gunmen, her face dropped into a frown. "Look, Mr. Skinner, I'm sorry, but this is the last time! I'm not telling you anything! I've made a promise and I'm going to keep it...it's too dangerous for me to tell you anything. It's dangerous enough that I'm talking to you right now!" She started to shut the door.  
  
Skinner held the door open firmly. "You think we don't know that? We came here because we have someone here that you need to see."  
  
"I don't need to see anybody!" Maggie protested, even as Skinner forced the door open more. "I just want you to-"  
  
Maggie stopped suddenly as the others filed inside her home, revealing the person who was standing in the back. Mulder gave a weak smile as Maggie put her hands over her mouth. "Oh my....." She buckled at the knees, tears springing to her eyes Byers caught her just before she collapsed on the floor.  
  
Mulder stepped inside the house. Maggie finally regained her balance and walked up to Mulder, her hand hovering over his shoulder, as if daring to see if he was real. Finally she overcame his hesitance and embraced Mulder. "Fox...it's...it's really you..."  
  
"Yeah." It was the only response Mulder could think of.  
  
Maggie stepped back to look Mulder over. "After all this time...seeing Dana..." Maggie suddenly stopped again.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I...I wish she was here to see you..."  
  
"Then take me to her! Skinner said that you were the last person to talk to her...you have to tell me where she is!"  
  
Maggie did not respond right away. She walked into the living room and found a chair where she could sit down. The others followed her. "She...she told me not to tell anyone where she went, because it was not safe. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, but I..." She looked carefully at Mulder. "I'm worried about her, too. She's been by herself for a whole two months, and I haven't received any word from her...I want to know..."  
  
"Why did she leave?"  
  
"I can't say that, either." Maggie paused. "Fox...where have you been all this time? How did you get back? Dana told me very little about what had happened to you...just that you were gone. We all reached a point where we thought you would never return...except Dana."  
  
"It's a very long story," Mulder sighed. As much as he enjoyed proving that he had been right all along, he was not sure if he wanted to tell the whole story all over again.  
  
When something suddenly caught his eye.  
  
For a moment, Mulder was frozen. Then he stepped closer and looked more carefully to confirm what he had seen before. What he saw made his heart skip and his throat close tightly.  
  
On the mantelpiece rested several photos in frames. One of the pictures was a photo of Scully outside, perhaps at a park. She was looking at a camera and smiling...and showing off her very pregnant body.  
  
Mulder wanted to pick up the picture to look at it closely, but he was afraid he would drop it, his hands were quivering so much. Everyone else in the room fell silent as they noticed what he was looking at.  
  
Mulder slowly turned back, his expression a mixture of shock, amazement and joy. "W...when was this taken?" He asked through dry lips.  
  
Maggie hesitated before answering. "She was eight months pregnant..." Another pause. "That was taken half a year ago."  
  
Mulder felt like he could choke on air if he dared to inhale. He had to swallow before speaking again. "She...had a...baby?"  
  
"This past February," Doggett said slowly. "It was a girl. She should be five months old now."  
  
"What is her name?"  
  
Doggett glanced around at the others. "Scully said her name was Hope. Nobody argued that, I guess."  
  
Mulder was deathly afraid to ask his next question, but he did so anyway. "Wh......who is the father?"  
  
This response took the longest of all. "They did multiple DNA tests...although Scully cannot explain it, she...um. Well, all the tests confirmed that the other half of the DNA came from.....you."  
  
Mulder's nerves jolted with the electric shock of Doggett's words. He wanted to make some sort of sound, but his throat was so thick and dry it felt like dough. All he knew was that before he had been abducted, he and Scully had gotten close...but never close enough for a baby. He had never slept with Scully...and yet here he was, the father of her child.  
  
(How can this be? I never did anything with her...how can it be my baby? Unless...it just had to happen. Unless that firebird legend got tired of waiting around for us and decided to take matters into its own hands...)  
  
A virgin birth? No, that just couldn't be possible. Scully was no Virgin Mary. But Mulder still didn't know how to explain her pregnancy if nothing happened between them. He wondered if Scully had any idea as to how she had become pregnant, or if she had given birth never knowing where her baby had come from. Seeing the picture of Scully pregnant and smiling, Mulder suddenly felt a wave of sadness wash over him...sad that he had not been here to take care of Scully in her pregnancy, to help her through the difficult times, to see his baby daughter when she was born. He hadn't been there for her...  
  
"Who took care of Scully?" Mulder wondered aloud.  
  
"She took care of herself," Doggett said. "I helped her whenever she would let me. I helped her to get through labor, and filled in for her when she was at home."  
  
Mulder felt his sadness boil up into a jealousy at Doggett. What right did this strange, stern agent have to suddenly take over roles that were rightfully his, just because he had been absent? Why did this "Doggett" get to have Scully to himself during the time that she would have needed Mulder most?  
  
Maggie sighed again, her voice choked with memories. "We tried our best to take care of her, to help her out, but Dana almost always insisted that she could take care of herself and the baby without any help. Then one night she came to me at three in the morning with Hope...she was practically in tears. She said that someone had attacked her in her home..."  
  
Mulder's heart jump-started. "Attacked?!!"  
  
Maggie nodded. "Someone came into her house and...Dana thinks they were trying to kidnap the baby. She woke up because she heard the baby crying, and whoever was there attacked her. Dana got her gun and shot the man...she doesn't think he could have survived. But when she came to see me, she was very shaken up. She said that it wasn't safe for her to stay out in public anymore, and that she wanted to go away for awhile. She wanted me not to tell anyone what she was doing, and just...disappear. I asked her how long she wanted to go away, and she said that she didn't know."  
  
"You have to tell me where she is," Mulder said. "I have to find her. I have to see my...daughter."  
  
Maggie did not respond for a long time. She closed her eyes, and everyone could tell she was trying to decide between keeping her promise or complying to Mulder's wishes. When she opened her eyes again, she said, "She's staying in a cabin in Vermont. The cabin belonged to my mother. It's deep in the woods, very secluded...very safe."  
  
"Can you take us there right away?" Skinner asked.  
  
"I can take you there."  
  
"Then let's go now!"  
  
Mulder was filled with an apprehensive excitement, and hoped that this time he would finally find what he had come back for. He could see her after all these months...as well as see her baby.  
  
Thinking of the baby reminded Mulder of one other detail... "We need to stop by my apartment first."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"We have to pick up someone."  
  
"Pick up someone?!" Skinner looked at Mulder quizzically. "Who is in your apartment?"  
  
Mulder suddenly realized that this was going to be very difficult to explain. "Um...well.....would you believe me if I said it was an alien?"  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"No." Doggett said.  
  
Mulder expected as much. "Well then, I'll just have to prove it to you. Just promise me that you won't do anything incredibly stupid when we get to my apartment."  
  
"Sure......." Frohike said slowly. The rest of the group was looking at Mulder strangely, but they were not saying anything. Apparently, they were only able to believe what Mulder said to a certain point.  
  
"We need to go now," Mulder said finally. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we can find Scully."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
Mulder stopped outside his apartment door, and hesitated. He took a glance back at the six people with him, not sure if wanted to see their reaction at what was inside. He was just about to knock when he remembered his translo. He took it out of his pocket and put it in his ear.  
  
Skinner gave him a strange look. "What is that?!"  
  
Mulder chose to ignore the question. "Now, before I open this door, I want you all to know something: this thing is not dangerous. Without her I never would have been able to get back here...so please don't do anything drastic."  
  
"Her?" Frohike said with raised eyebrows.  
  
Mulder turned to the door and knocked three times slowly. There was a pause, and then everyone watched in amazement as the doorknob jiggled, and then unlocked.  
  
Mulder the only one who knew who had opened the door, but even he was in a bit of shock when he saw her. Yallus was completely sopping wet, her feathers a red-brownish color from being damp. She was standing in a puddle of water on the floor, looking somewhat irritated.  
  
Mulder's surprise wasn't nearly as bad as the reaction of the six people behind him. Doggett leaped backwards as if he had been electrocuted and shouted, "HOLY S--T!!!" Maggie had to stifle a scream, and the Lone Gunmen just stood there as if someone had glued their feet to the floor and they were still trying to get away. Even Skinner, who had seen the UFO take off when Mulder had been abducted, was more than a little startled. "Mulder...what the hell is this?!"  
  
Mulder gave the group what he hoped was an encouraging grin. "This is Yallus Tallo. She's a Thybiran, and I met her and bunch of other different...types of people when I was on the ship."  
  
Yallus suddenly started clicking and squawking to Mulder, but Mulder was the only one who could understand her.  
  
KREEA-IK-IK-IK-REKARR-KRIK?  
  
"I don't know what a body airchamber is, so most likely I don't have one."  
  
REERKA-REE-KAKA-IK-IK-IK-IK-RIK?!  
  
"We use something called towels. Didn't you see them?"  
  
EK-IK-EEK-RAKAREE-KREEKAR.  
  
"You used all my towels?! How come you're still wet?"  
  
IRKEE-RAK-RAK-KREEARKIK-IK-AK! IK-EEK-IK-IK-RAKAR!  
  
"You can try using my blow dryer. But I'm not sure if it still works..."  
  
REERKEE-KEEKA-IRKIK-IKIKIK-REEEE-AARK?  
  
It's in the bottom cabinet, and you plug it into the wall socket. Just don't electrocute yourself, you're sopping wet."  
  
Yallus disappeared back into Mulder's bathroom, and Mulder turned back to his friends. "Sorry. Yallus just used my shower, and she's trying to figure out what she can use to dry herself off with..."  
  
Mulder stopped as he saw the faces of the other six people. Doggett had drawn his weapon and held it nervously at the floor; the only thing that was preventing him from firing right there was Mulder's unnaturally calm look. "Mulder, what is that thing?" He said. "Where did it come from?"  
  
"I told you, her name is Yallus, and she's a Thybiran! Her homeworld is Arethia."  
  
"H....homeworld?" Skinner said slowly.  
  
"Yeah!" Mulder finally perked up at being able to prove he was right. "I was right all along...there is not only alien life out there, there are hundreds of different races in this one corner of the galaxy! I already told you about the other races I met on the ship. Yallus helped me to get home because she knew how to fly the smaller ship we took home. That ship is somewhere out in the woods...I can't exactly remember where."  
  
"She's not...d-dangerous?" Doggett finally managed to gasp.  
  
"Of course not!" Mulder said. "She wouldn't hurt anyone...unless you were an Argothian. But that's a good thing." Mulder turned back to the bathroom. "Yallus! You're not dangerous, are you?"  
  
Yallus stepped out of the bathroom, using the blow-dryer on one of her legs. KRE-KRAAEE-REEKAE-KRI-KI-KREEKA?  
  
"Just say no, okay?"  
  
KRA?  
  
"See? She said so herself."  
  
"Mulder, how can you understand what it is saying?" Doggett asked. He had put his gun away, but was still looking very nervous...and very confused.  
  
"This thing." Mulder pointed to the translo in his ear. "Yallus gave me this, and it translates different languages so that you can understand them." He turned back to the Thybiran. "Yallus, do you have any more translos?"  
  
[Only four,] She said, throwing Mulder the pouch that contained them.  
  
"Does anybody want to use one?" Mulder asked. "She only has four left."  
  
Nobody was quick to answer. After a while, Skinner finally said, "I want to know what she is saying." Mulder handed him one of the translos, and Skinner looked at it was a strange expression. "What do I do?"  
  
"Just put it in your ear, that's all."  
  
Skinner hesitated, and then did so. He flinched a little at having this alien object filling his ear, but so far at least it didn't seem to be hurting him.  
  
"Yallus! Say something!" Mulder instructed.  
  
Both Skinner and Mulder clearly heard Yallus say, [Why the hell haven't you told me who these people are?!]  
  
"Sorry..." Mulder launched into his introductions, ignoring Skinner's initial shock at being able to understand Yallus. "This is Skinner, and he used to be my boss. This is Agent Doggett, he...worked with Scully for awhile. These are my friends, Frohike, Langly and Byers. And this is Scully's mother, Maggie."  
  
[Why are they here?]  
  
"We think we may have found Scully! We came by to pick you up so that we can find her."  
  
Yallus turned off the blow-dryer. [The red firebird?! Then why are we standing around talking? Let's go to her!!]  
  
"The red what?!" Skinner said, still somewhat in shock.  
  
Mulder gave Yallus a look that said not to say any more on the subject. "You're right...we're going right now."  
  
"W-Wait a minute, Mulder," Maggie spoke up suddenly. "I don't want everyone going to see Dana."  
  
Everyone's faces dropped almost in synch. "What do you mean?" Doggett asked.  
  
"Like I told you earlier, it's too dangerous for so many people to converge on her at one time. Especially with somebody as conspicuous as...Mulder's friend. I only want Mulder and possibly Mr. Skinner to come. Perhaps we can convince Dana to come home, and then you can see her. But until then, I'm going to stick by her instructions as best as I can."  
  
There was silence for a moment. "What are we supposed to do in the meanwhile?" Byers finally asked.  
  
"Byers, you and Frohike and Langly take Yallus back to your place for now. I'll give you the rest of the translos so you can communicate, and Yallus has a disguise she can use if necessary. I'm sure you won't get bored talking to her."  
  
[There you go again!] Yallus complained. [Running off to go see the red firebird, and leaving me behind with these three people that I don't even know!]  
  
"Don't worry, you'll get to like them. And they know a lot about science and technology, perhaps they'll help you find a fuel source for that attack gunner. I know that you want to see the...see Scully, but I would rather see her first alone. I know you understand."  
  
Yallus was about to protest again, but she stopped and sighed in consent. The Lone Gunmen seemed to be okay with the idea, if now just a little apprehensive. Mulder sensed that Frohike might even be excited by having Yallus come with them.  
  
"What about me?" Doggett asked. "I figured that I would be entitled to come along, too..."  
  
Mulder was not all that eager to have Doggett come with him when he went to see Scully for the first time in over a year. "Well, Agent Doggett...you were Scully's partner for this past time, so whoever is looking for her might be able to get to her easier through you. It'd probably be better if you went back to the FBI headquarters, and made sure things stay quiet over there. We don't want any suspicions being aroused just yet."  
  
Doggett did not complain as loudly as Yallus, but he still felt a kind of resentment towards Mulder. After all, he had been Scully's partner all this time while Mulder had been gone. He had helped her solve who-knows-how-many bizarre cases, and he had been concerned for her whenever she had not come to work. He had stood by her through 18 hours of labor, and he had done twice as much work while she was on maternity leave. Lord knows he had saved her life more than once. So why then did he have to stay behind when he had been the one that had been searching for her all this time?  
  
(He is the father of Scully's baby,) Doggett reminded himself. (I suppose he is entitled to see his child as well as Scully...) But that thought did not change his mind very much. He still felt a fairly strong resentment towards Mulder, and not just because Mulder was getting to see Scully and he wasn't. If it weren't for Mulder's disappearance, he never would have been assigned to the X-Files in the first place. Although he couldn't say that his time on the X-Files had not been interesting, he hadn't considered it very rewarding. Unlike Mulder or Scully, he did not have a passion for this strange version of law enforcement. And now Mulder had come back, and brought with him this intelligent alien being, destroying everything he had trusted and believed in. He was not sure what to think now about anything...about himself, his peers, the FBI, the world he lived in. (All because that Agent Mulder had to conveniently disappear and then come back and screw up everything I've worked so hard for...)  
  
Doggett looked at the floor and nodded, angry that he was being left out but deciding that now was not the time to argue it. Skinner did not argue Doggett's case, since he was happy just to be allowed to be going to see Scully.  
  
"We should go soon," Maggie warned. "I really don't like standing around talking about Dana like this."  
  
"Then we will," Mulder said decisively. "You all know what to do. We will contact you as soon as we bring Scully back." Mulder took a deep breath and looked at his friends, not sure what to say next. "I'll make sure I come back with her."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
Skinner's small Taurus bounced unsteadily over the rough terrain...the vehicle was obviously not built for difficult roads. On all sides, the trees stood as a firm and intimidating barrier between them and the deep woods.  
  
Mulder watched the trees go by with some halfway fascination, and he was slightly disturbed by it. When he had been in the operating room schedule after schedule, he had promised himself that if he ever returned to Earth that he would never be unappreciative again. He would cherish everything about this planet...from the dirty gray security of civilization to the natural wonders that any human being could love. And yet here he was again...regarding trees as trees, grass as grass, dirt as dirt, and nothing more.  
  
Somehow, he could not appreciate any of this beauty without Scully. Instead of seeming mysterious and wonderful, the woods felt cold and threatening without her. He wanted to regain that sense of wonderment; he wanted to return to Scully...and yet he didn't. The reunion with Scully, which he had prayed for endlessly every night for the past year, was suddenly something that he dreaded. He knew that once he met her, that things would never be the same again, that some unnamable thing in their relationship would be lost. He remembered Doggett's words...(Things changed, Agent Mulder. A lot of things changed.)  
  
(How do I talk to her, after all this time, after she's been partners with that Agent Doggett for a year, after she's been pregnant and had a baby? How can I so much as look at her after all the things we've been though away from each other? How can she ever forgive me for leaving, and abandoning her when she needed me most? How can we ever just pick up where we left off, continue on as if this past year never happened? We can't.)  
  
(So where do we go from there? I've come back knowing so much about what has happened and what can happen in the future...how do I explain all this to Scully? She wouldn't want to hear it...she wouldn't want to hear that her baby is involved in grand, far-reaching schemes that affect everyone on this planet and hundreds of planets besides. She would want to protect her baby, to try and give it a normal life; the normal life that she can never have.)  
  
(In a way, I want that for our daughter, too.)  
  
(Our daughter.) The thought reminded Mulder of the amazing miracle of Scully's pregnancy. (All DNA tests proved that I am the father...yet we never slept together.) Try as he could, Mulder could not explain this one. He had never given to a donor center before, so he didn't know how she could have gotten ahold of his half of the contribution...he didn't even know how she had gotten her own half. (How can she have become fertile again? This entire situation doesn't make any sense...) Mulder found it odd that he could have escaped from an alien spaceship with the help of living, intelligent aliens and then find something as common as a pregnancy to not make any sense.  
  
(But this is no ordinary pregnancy...) Mulder corrected himself. (Which means this is no ordinary baby.)  
  
Mulder glanced back to the seats behind him...Skinner was driving again, and Maggie was sitting in the front seat next to him. Somehow, Mulder felt uncomfortable sitting alone in the back. As much as he ached to see Scully again, he knew he also wanted to talk with the Lone Gunmen after not seeing them again for a year. He wanted to make sure that Yallus was alright. He wouldn't even have minded having Doggett talking to him.  
  
Doggett intrigued Mulder...in an annoying sort of way. He wondered how Scully had acted around Doggett. Had she instantly invited him into her circle, or had she turned on the electric fence that surrounded that circle? Had she accepted him as a friend and partner, or had she done a thousand background checks before letting him get close? Had she told him him about how she had felt towards himself? Had she told him about her pregnancy instantly...or did he have to find out on his own? Except for his escape, Mulder's past year had been almost boring. But there was no telling what Scully had been through.  
  
"It's coming up here," Maggie warned suddenly. "Drive slowly, so it won't look like you're trying to rush up to get her."  
  
Skinner slowed the van, although Mulder could still see nothing but trees. He felt his heartbeat pick up speed, and started to squirm in his seat with some building energy. He tried to think of the first thing he would say to Scully...a million different ideas went through his head, but he rejected every one. He was completely unprepared...and somehow that made it all the easier.  
  
The van climbed up over a rise, and when they reached the top, they could see a small clearing below them. In the clearing there sat Scully's car and a single wooden cabin.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED........ 


	2. The Firebirds II

THE X-FILES

"The Firebirds II: The Price of Magic Blood"

By Sketchy Sunshine (OSTOCOM member)

See profile for email and website  
  
Rating: PG or more  
  
Classification: Season 8, Mulder Return, Scully, Adventure  
  
Spoilers: Everything up to "Within"/"Without", and some season 8.  
  
Summary: The sequel to "The Firebirds": Scully's perspective on the events that lead up to her reunion with Mulder, and afterwards...  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them, no I don't; oh-ah-oh-ah, sing it! :P Naw DUH, M&S and D&Sk belong to CC&C. Yallus belongs to me, go me. I'm not sure who the baby belongs to...Chris or me? How about we share it? A 90%-10% split in my favor? ;) Oh yeah...and the song I use very briefly is "Sick Cycle Carousel" by Lifehouse. I don't sing it. :)  
  
Author's Notes: Ta-daa, here is the next story in this mah-velous series! I hoped you liked the first one enough to see what comes next! Obviously, you have to read the first "The Firebirds" in order to understand this (trust me, you will be VERY confused if you don't...) I'm not sure how many stories there will be...definitely three, maybe four. Lots more Scully in this one.  
  
..........."THE FIREBIRDS II"..............  
  
"So when will this end, it goes on an on, Over and over and over again, Keeps spinning around, I know that it won't stop, Till I step down from this for good..."  
  
Scully turned down the radio momentarily to listen for a sound in the backseat of her car. In the back there sat a few grocery bags stuffed with food and other necessities. In between the groceries there was a single carseat, where Hope sat giggling and smiling. Scully smiled back at the baby in the rearview mirror.  
  
(She's growing every day...it's hard to believe she's already three months old.)  
  
Three months old. It had been three months since Hope had been born, and almost five months since she had left the FBI on maternity leave. She had kept mostly to herself towards the end of her pregnancy...she had felt bad about leaving Doggett to deal with extra work, but every time she had offered to help he had refused, saying that the last thing she should be doing while pregnant was working. Scully had subdued to his insisting, but she could tell that he was having trouble on the cases without her more open views on things.  
  
And then Hope had been born. That had certainly been an ordeal...both Doggett and Skinner had nearly crumbled into nervous wrecks making sure that everything was okay with Scully, and locking down security so tight it made the Pentagon look like a kid's playground. (Skinner and Doggett were probably more stressed than me.)  
  
The entire time Scully had been in labor, she had been half expecting to see Mulder rush through the door in a whirlwind of excitement and see his daughter be born. It was so ironically perfect she had decided it just had to happen. So through 18 hours of labor, her focus had been on the door, waiting for Mulder and his astonished smile-and-a-half. But he hadn't come. the baby had been born, and she had sat holding Hope with tears in her eyes, but only half of those tears had been for her newborn baby.  
  
It had been somewhat awkward after the baby had been born, and it was time to go home. Skinner and Doggett had been very quiet all throughout Scully's packing up, not knowing what else they needed to do now that the baby was here. Scully had gone home...and felt like she had never been pregnant at all, and had had this child dropped on her doorstep for her to take care of. Still, she had the idea in her head that Mulder would be coming back to see her and his daughter, and she had gone to sleep that night telling herself that when she woke up in the morning that Mulder would be sitting there, waiting for her. But when she opened her eyes the following dawn, she had found only herself and Hope.  
  
And so it had been the same way, day after day, for the past three months. The idea of Mulder ever returning was drifting farther and farther away from her with each passing day. The trials of caring for a newborn child by herself were beginning to wear her down...not to mention the depression-causing hormone shifts that were already present. She would become depressed from her predicament, and would vent her frustration by yelling at Hope whenever Hope did something wrong. Then Hope would start crying, and Scully would drown herself in an ocean of guilt, telling herself that she shouldn't have done it, and that it wasn't Hope's fault that Mulder was gone, and for God's sake she's only a baby and I'm yelling at her. Then Scully would apologize to Hope over and over, and beg her for forgiveness for being such an arrogant, selfish human being that didn't deserve such a beautiful child. And of course, Hope would instantly forgive her with a hug, and Scully would depress herself even more with the knowledge that a tiny baby could be more loving than all the adults in the world put together.  
  
Lately, Scully's depression was beginning to fade...she guessed that her hormone shifts were cooling down. She was not feeling happy, but she just felt like she had leveled off into a neutral state. The only thing that really concerned Scully now was taking care of Hope. She did not know what she was going to do once her maternity leave was over, and she didn't want to think about it right now. Who would take care of Hope once she went back to the FBI? Did she really want to sacrifice time with her child for the FBI if Mulder wasn't there? Even with Doggett's presence, her job felt empty. Plus there was the ever-present mortal danger she put herself in regularly...the last thing Scully wanted to do was make her child an orphan.  
  
Scully then turned her attention from Hope in the backseat to the road. She sighed a little as she watched the pavement speed by underneath her car and the sun began to lower westwards. Life these past few months consisted of grocery shopping and dirty diapers and nursing hours and phone calls to Doggett and Skinner. She wondered if this was as good as it would get. She wondered if this was as good as she deserved.  
  
"I never thought I'd end up here, never, Thought I'd be standing where I am. I guess I kinda thought that it would be easier than this, I guess I was wrong, now, one more time..."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
Dreams like dying butterflies in heavy rains flittered around in her subconscious; dark, quiet and humble. She was not in a very heavy sleep; she had not been in one for a long time. But it was enough to last her through every day, so she was content to remain in it.  
  
Dana Scully turned over in her sleep, her nerves feeling inexplicably tight. She was somewhat glad that she was dreaming nothing except blue and gray blurs...as opposed to previous nightmares she used to have. She used to frequently dream about Mulder, and about the cold, sharp, painful things that were done to him whether by her imagination or some actual being. But over time those dreams had blurred together into a mess of dark colors and dark sounds, freeing Scully from the horrid details of their constant pain. She did not want to think about such things at night.  
  
A sudden sound caused the dying butterflies to wither away as Scully became half-awake. It was a very familiar sound, and one that she still did not enjoy listening to at three in the morning...the baby was crying.  
  
Scully shut her eyes tightly, wishing that the sound would go away so she could get at least five consecutive hours of sleep. But the crying only became louder, and Scully decided it was time to start getting up. She managed to move her foot a few inches. (It's a start...)  
  
But something was wrong. She knew Hope's crying by heart, and this wasn't normal. It wasn't the pleading cry for food or the uncomfotable cry of a dirty diaper. This was something of fear, a desperate terror. The crying was seeming to say, "Danger! Help me, protect me, I'm in danger!"  
  
Scully forced her eyes open and struggled to prop herself up on one elbow. Hope's crib was on the far side of the bedroom, and as her eyes focused, she could see something. It was large, and black, and moving towards the crib.  
  
(Oh God!!)  
  
Scully leaped up in a spark of electric energy, a wordless cry rising from her tight stomach. The dark intruder turned and launched itself at her.  
  
Scully felt her skull hit the bedroom floor as the thing knocked her to the ground. She punched upwards at its face, or what she hoped was its face...in the dark she couldn't tell whether the thing was man or beast.  
  
Whatever she did, the thing reacted by swinging its fist across her face. She was momentarily stunned, and felt her brain flicker with confusion as the dead butterflies returned to cloud her vision. Her heart lurched as she tasted blood in her mouth. (Have to...get up...)  
  
She could sense the black man getting up, and she heard the baby's shrill scream pierce her ears. Then suddenly, the scream was cut short.  
  
(NO!!!) Scully leaped to her feet, adrenaline mixing with the blood in her mouth. She fumbled around in her drawer until she found cold black metal she whipped around and pointed it at the black mass and touched the trigger and---  
  
BRAM! BRAM!  
  
The man stumbled backwards, a hand to his chest, grunting some curse. Scully clenched her teeth and fired again. This time, the man crumpled to the floor and did not move.  
  
The gun dropped from Scully's fingers and clunked on the floor. She closed her eyes and breathed heavily, feeling a half- sob rise in her throat with each gulp of air she took. (The bastard...what was he doing...what did he make me do...)  
  
Scully suddenly became alive again, and rushed to the crib. There was her Hope, her beautiful little Hope, lying with a cloth over her mouth. Scully ripped the cloth away, and Hope coughed and then started to cry again.  
  
Scully could not stop the tears from coming to her own eyes as well. She reached down with trembling hands and picked up Hope, and held her tightly to her chest. Scully began to sob, and kissed her precious child over and over again on the forehead. "It's okay...it's okay, baby...mommy is here....I won't let anything hurt you..."  
  
Hope's crying lessened as she found comfort in the embrace of her mother, but Scully's did not. Her legs were weak, and she sat down on the bed, rocking the baby back and forth. She cried without stopping, all sorts of horrible thoughts running through her head...(What was that man doing here? Why was he after Hope? What could he have done to her? What would I have done if I hadn't woken up in time? How could I live without her...) Scully cut her thoughts short. She knew that she just couldn't go on if Hope was taken. Ever since Mulder had disappeared, Hope had been the only source of comfort for her, as bitter as the comfort was. It had been especially difficult while she had been pregnant, and only able to experience the difficult side of motherhood. After Hope had been born, she had someone to hold and care for, someone who could provide her with the constant loving companionship that she had lost when Mulder left. And if she were to lose Hope after losing Mulder...she knew she would be devastated. She would be broken, and unable to piece herself back together ever again.  
  
After an unknown time of sitting on the bed holding the baby, Scully began to calm down, and realize what she had just done. The man on the floor had not moved since she shot him...he had to be dead.  
  
Once Hope's crying had been reduced to a quiet sniffling, Scully returned her to her crib. Never taking her eyes off the man, Scully moved to the light switch, and light instantly filled the room, causing Scully to squint.  
  
And when her eyes adjusted again, she clearly saw the face of the man she had just shot.  
  
Scully felt her breath catch in her throat. She recognized the man instantly, and a million different possibilities raced through her brain as to the reason for his presence. All of them filled Scully with an intense fear. She felt as if every breath of air in the room was watching her, out to get her and her baby.  
  
She slowly crept back to the crib and picked up Hope, peeling her gaze away from the man. She pressed Hope's face to her chest in an unconscious effort to hide her child's face from the horrible mess of death on the floor. "Don't worry, Hope..." Scully whispered slowly. "We're getting out of here. We're going someplace safe." She kissed the baby again. "I'll make sure that you're safe."  
  
Carrying Hope with her, she instantly set to work preparing. Scully packed a small suitcase with some of her clothes, toiletries and a few other items. She packed all of Hope's things into a separate backpack, and folded up her playpen. She took all of these things, including her wallet and gun, and loaded them into her car. Finally, she strapped Hope into her carseat. The baby had apparently gotten over her scare, and was dropping off to sleep again.  
  
Scully was just the opposite. She was getting more and more anxious by the minute, and she felt like she could start crying again at any moment. She did not at all feel good about leaving the dead body in her room to rot, but there was no way she was telling anyone in the FBI or police about the incident. The risks were too great. She did not know exactly why the man had come for her child...but she knew it could only be because there was something about Hope. Something that called for extreme measures taken by those against her. And the last thing Scully wanted was for Hope to be caught in the middle of the most difficult trials of her life.  
  
Scully locked the front door, shutting the deadly encounter inside. Then she got inside the car and put the key in the ignition...but didn't start it yet.  
  
(Where can I go? Who would I talk to at this time of night? Not Agent Doggett...I'm not comfortable going to see Doggett. Not Skinner either, that just seems too dangerous.)  
  
(Mom. I'll go see mom.)  
  
Scully swallowed hard, and turned the car on. She felt cold and tense all over, and hoped that she would be able to drive carefully enough. (Just as long as I can get someplace safe, I'll be okay. And so will Hope.)  
  
The car pulled out of the driveway and sped off into the night.  
  
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Scully knocked furiously on her mother's front door, holding Hope in the crook of her other arm. She didn't stop knocking, and prayed that her mom was not sleeping too deeply...  
  
Maggie opened the door slowly, obviously very annoyed at being summoned at this hour. She was dressed in her pajamas and bathrobe, and squinted at Scully through tired eyes. For a moment, she couldn't seem to recognize her own daughter and granddaughter. "Dana?....."  
  
"Mom, please let us in right now, please..."  
  
"Dana, what are you doing here?..."  
  
"Please, there's no time to explain!" Scully's voice was frightened and ragged, and filling with tears. "Just let us in!"  
  
Maggie, seeing the fear in her daughter's eyes, instantly let her in and shut the door behind her. Scully walked in a few paces until she collapsed into a sitting position on the floor, clutching Hope to her. She choked back sobs lurking in her breath as her mother turned on the light.  
  
"Dana, you're bleeding!" Maggie gasped, horrified. "What on Earth happened to you?!"  
  
Scully hesitated before answering, as if afraid that if she did it might happen to her again. "I...Hope and I were attacked..."  
  
Maggie instantly collapsed to the floor beside her daughter and embraced her. "What?...Who attacked you? What did they do? Why?...."  
  
"I don't know why!" Scully cried into Maggie's shoulder. "They were after Hope, they wanted to do something to Hope..." She cried again, feeling comfort in the arms of her mother just as Hope felt comfort in her arms. "I-I woke up as he was going for Hope, and he jumped on me and hit me. Then he got up and tried to get Hope again, and I got my gun and shot him..."  
  
Maggie pulled herself away. "You shot him? Did you kill him?!"  
  
"I...I think so. He didn't move once I shot him."  
  
"You just left the body there, Dana?" Maggie was obviously very shocked. "You didn't tell the police or FBI what happened?"  
  
"I...I couldn't tell anyone! After I saw who he was, I knew it was too dangerous to say anything..."  
  
"Who was he?"  
  
Scully looked at her mother and suddenly didn't want to tell her who the man was. "He was...somebody who I've seen before. Several times. And has tried to hurt me...and Mulder. I didn't want anybody in a higher power to find out what had happened to him."  
  
Maggie wanted to press further into the matter, but she could tell that her daughter did not want to talk about it. Scully was finally getting over her sobbing, but she was still very shaken up. Maggie was not sure what to say next. "What did your partner at work, Agent Doggett, say?"  
  
"I didn't call him."  
  
"Did you call anybody else?"  
  
"No. I came straight here."  
  
Maggie was quiet for a minute. "You just left the man in your apartment without telling anyone?"  
  
"Yes...but that doesn't matter right now!" Scully said, her eyes shut and her voice thick. "I just...I just want to...get away!"  
  
"Get away from who? Is there still someone after you?" Maggie asked, gripping Scully's shoulders.  
  
"I don't know! I don't know if he was alone or...or what. Somebody could be watching me right now...watching Hope..." Scully shuddered at the thought.  
  
"Why would anyone want to hurt Hope?" Maggie wondered aloud.  
  
"Because she..." Scully stopped. She was developing a sense, a sense in her head that there was more to this baby than even she knew about. But she couldn't explain what it was. She didn't even want to imagine what sort of thing it could be, because whenever she thought about it only bad things came to mind. "I don't know why. I just know that they want to do something bad to her."  
  
Maggie embraced Scully and Hope again as Scully started to tear up. "Don't worry, honey...you can stay with me for awhile if you want. Until you feel okay again. I'll make sure that you and Hope are safe."  
  
Scully said nothing for several minutes, and Maggie assumed that she was thinking the matter over. When Hope made a small gurgling noise, Scully seemed to come alive again. Her mind was made up.  
  
"I'm going to go away for awhile," Scully said.  
  
"Go away?"  
  
"Yes..." She said slowly, her gaze fixed upon an unknown point in space. "Hope and I will go away for awhile. Live by ourselves somewhere where it is safe. I'll take all the money I have, and I already packed clothes and things for both of us." She turned to her mother. "I just don't know where I can go."  
  
Maggie understood why her daughter had come here...she wanted to find a place where she and Hope could hide. Maggie was sad that she could not provide more comfort to Dana, but she could understand where Dana was coming from. She didn't have to think very long before an idea came to mind. "Well...I think I know of someplace that might work."  
  
Scully looked hopeful. "What? Please tell me!"  
  
"My mother, your grandmother, had a cabin up in the deep woods of Vermont. She was raised there, and she used it as a place to stay during the summer sometimes. Your father and I went there once or twice. Nobody's used it for awhile though...there's running water and electricity, but no phone line. It's very secluded, and is only accessible by an old dirt road. The road leads back to a small town where there was a grocery store and some other stores, if I remember..."  
  
"Can you take us there?"  
  
"At this hour? It's a very long drive..."  
  
"I'll drive most of the way if you want me to, and you can sleep. I'm not tired, trust me."  
  
Maggie wanted to tell her daughter no, but the pleading look in Scully's eyes told her to do so otherwise. She softened, and gave in. "Okay...I'll take you there tonight, if you feel the need to go right now."  
  
Scully managed to crack a grateful smile, and she embraced Maggie. "Thank you, mom."  
  
Maggie sat and held Dana for awhile, feeling her body shudder with relief. She seemed to frightened, so tight, so frail...she had been this way inside ever since Mulder had left. It hurt Maggie to see her daughter in this way, after she had been so much stronger before. It hurt her to see Scully struggling though each day alone, refusing help from everybody except the one person who wasn't there to give it to her. And now, she had just agreed to take her daughter and granddaughter someplace where they would be completely cut off from the world, where they would have no contact with anyone except themselves. She wondered if she was doing the right thing. "Are you sure you want to do this, Dana?" Maggie asked quietly.  
  
"Yes, I'm sure."  
  
"Then get your things...we'll have to leave quickly if we want to stop somewhere along the way." Scully nodded, and stood up, when something else came to her mind.  
  
"Mom, I want you to promise me something."  
  
"Yes, what is it?"  
  
Scully took a deep breath. "Promise that you won't tell anyone...not anyone what has happened to me. Don't breathe a word about me being attacked or staying in this cabin. Especially to Skinner or Doggett. It's just too risky..."  
  
"Okay..." A sudden thought occurred to Maggie. "Is it alright if I come and see you?"  
  
"No!" Scully's knee-jerk response was a bit too loud. "I'm sorry...no. I just want to be alone with Hope for awhile, and be safe. When I'm ready, I'll come back on my own. Just promise me that you won't tell anyone anything."  
  
Maggie could not hide the hurt in her voice. "I promise."  
  
Scully hugged her mother again. "Thank you, mom...I could never thank you enough for this."  
  
Maggie just nodded slowly. "Come...let's get you ready." oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo  
  
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The afternoon's light was just beginning to evaporate away into night as Scully's car drove silently along the rough dirt road. It was Maggie's turn to drive again, and Scully was sitting in the passenger seat staring quietly at the multitude of trees outside. She wondered if she was going to be able to last living here for more than a few days. The woods seemed so thick and challenging, and she wondered if she would end up staying for awhile and then come crawling back to the comforts of civilization she might crave. It would be very difficult to live alone with a new baby without phone lines or other conveniences...she had been busy enough taking care of Hope in a world full of them. (What am I thinking?) Scully thought to herself. (I'm giving up my home, my job and my security to live like a near-wild person in the woods just because I'm afraid to exist in civilization anymore? That man was probably alone...that would be like him. There's probably nobody else after me. I'm probably just scaring myself into doing something unnecessary and foolish.)  
  
But despite these ideas, Scully still didn't want to go back on what she had begun. The uncomfortable feeling in her gut still drove her to these measures, and would not be quieted with any amount of logical thinking.  
  
Maggie was saying nothing, and just concentrated on the road. Scully could tell that her mother was somewhat angry at her...angry that she was doing this and was running off with no protection except solitude. But she was not going to argue, because she knew Scully could take care of herself. They had talked very little during the eight-hour drive over here, and only stopped when they need to switch positions, go to a gas station or eat. Hope and Maggie had slept often, but Scully had not so much as closed her eyes. The hysteria and fear from the event had worn off long ago, and had been replaced with a feeling of tense calmness. She felt as if this cabin she was going to was the ends of the Earth, which was the only place she could get away from the dangers that surrounded her and her child. She would not feel safe until she was alone with Hope inside the cabin.  
  
"Are you almost ready, Dana?" Maggie's voice broke the string of her thoughts. "It's just over this rise."  
  
Scully mumbled something and shifted so that she was facing forward. "I guess so." What was she supposed to say? This was definitely no summer vacation, and parting between the two of them would be very difficult. She wished it was over right now.  
  
The car began to go down the rise, and the cabin came into view. It was a small, dark old skeleton of a home, looking like the setting of some scary movie. She suddenly wondered if this was such a good idea.  
  
"You'll obviously have to clean it up quite a bit. There were some people that rented it from us for awhile, but I'm not sure how long ago that was." Maggie said. It was obvious that she was desperate for at least some form of conversation. "There may be a few things that need repairing, like the window or something. I can stay and help you clean up if you like..."  
  
"No." Scully said, almost too sharply. That quieted Maggie down, although it was an angry silence. They did not exchange any more words until they stopped outside the cabin.  
  
Scully got out quickly and went to take Hope out of her carseat. In doing so, she woke up Hope from her nap, and Hope started crying. Scully tried to quiet her, because she suddenly couldn't stand to see Hope cry...it reminded her too much of the events of the previous night. Walking slowly and cautiously, Scully came to the front door and pushed on it. It was unlocked.  
  
She pushed the door open entirely and coughed as an avalanche of dust attacked her nose. Inside she could see a variety of furniture and decorations coated with dust and cobwebs. As she walked into the house, she felt like she was entering some lost memory in her mind, and had to clean out the dust and cobwebs before she could clearly remember it again. Maggie stepped in behind her.  
  
"It should have everything you need..." She said awkwardly. "There's a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen back there. I'm afraid you'll have to take your laundry to the laundromat, or wash it by hand. I think there may be some lumber, nails and saws in a shed out back, just in case you need them."  
  
Scully did not say anything.  
  
Maggie felt frustrated. "I don't like your idea of keeping your cell phone off, Dana. I won't be able to call you, to make sure you're alright..."  
  
"Look, mom, we already went over this," Scully said tiredly. "I can't let you call me, or even have the cell phone on, because someone could trace the call and find out where I am. If I am in danger or have an emergency, ONLY then will I call you."  
  
Maggie sighed heavily. She did not understand this strange situation Dana had suddenly plunged herself into, and she wished there was some way she could pull Dana out of it. She only said, "I take it you want to start right away, then."  
  
"I'll just clean up the bedroom tonight..." Scully answered, her throat beginning to tie itself into knots. "So I can sleep. And tomorrow I'll start on the rest..."  
  
Scully's lips trembled, and she instinctually moved into her mother's open arms. She didn't cry, but just breathed deep sobs. "I love you, mom."  
  
"I love you too, Dana."  
  
With that, Maggie went back to the car and helped take out the rest of Scully's things. Then she gave her daughter a final farewell and drove the car off into the darkening forest. Scully just stood in the front door and watched her go, feeling pine- scented winds brush her hair back.  
  
And then she was alone.  
  
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"What do you think, Hope? Should we have ham or turkey this time?"  
  
Hope stared down at the two choices presented to her on the table. They looked pretty much the same to her, and she wondered what her mother was trying to get at here. After careful consideration, she slammed her tiny fists down on her seat bar to make her statement.  
  
"Neither? Grilled cheese it is, then." Scully smiled at Hope as she put away the two meats she had pulled out of the refrigerator. "I knew you'd make the right choice."  
  
Hope giggled in response. Scully was amazed at how much one human being could grow in just a month and a half. Hope was sitting up in her special play chair and was even trying to form sounds besides crying. The more she saw Hope grow, the happier she became.  
  
Scully turned on the oven and took out bread and cheese to begin making sandwiches for herself. She was glad that she didn't have to prepare food for Hope, since so far she seemed to be perfectly content with breast milk, although lately Scully had begun experimenting with bottles and soft foods. Scully found herself in a good mood today...she had woken up feeling alive and fresh, and she loved the feeling. She had looked out the window at the glorious sun and the mockingbirds, and it was then she knew that today was a perfect day to go to the island. She planned to stay there for quite a few hours, and perhaps finish that book she had bought.  
  
Scully had gotten what she considered a lot accomplished in the month and a half she had been living here. The first night had not been a very enjoyable experience. She had managed to take her things inside, fold out Hope's playpen for her to sleep in, and dusted off the bed's old mattress before collapsing with exhaustion on top of it. Although she had been unable to move from lack of strength, she had been unable to go to sleep either, and had been in and out of sleep listening to the sounds of the forest outside.  
  
The next morning, she had instantly gone to work making this cabin a suitable place to live. She swept and dusted the whole house from top to bottom until she was certain she would choke herself to death. She scrubbed down all the appliances in the kitchen and bathroom until they practically looked new. She washed the mattress, blankets and sheets by hand because she had not been brave enough to take them to the Laundromat. That had been rather difficult, since she had just filled up the bathtub with water and soap and then tried to scrub off the spots and stains by hand. She had also spent extensive time searching all the house for spiders, rats and cockroaches. Luckily, the only rats she had found were in the tool shed on the outside, and she was able to get rid of them just by plugging up their hole. It took Scully nearly a week to complete fixing up the house, but when she was done she was very pleased with it.  
  
Throughout all of these undertakings, Scully had still devoted most of her time to Hope. Even when she was not busy feeding her, changing her or putting her to sleep, she would bring out the playpen or baby chair and let Hope watch while she worked on the house. Either way, Scully almost never let Hope out of her sight.  
  
Once the house was fixed up, Scully found herself faced with a lot more leisure time than she had ever encountered before. There were no phone calls to make, no e-mails to reply to, no case file reports to look over, and no one to spend time with except her child. So she finally began to relax...she had made a garden for herself and planted both flowers and vegetables, hoping to make it so that the only thing she would need from the grocery store would be meats, bread and drinks. The cabin had no TV, so she went to the bookstore and bought herself piles of reading material. She couldn't remember the last time she had read a book for pleasure, and she had found the experience to be quite relaxing and stimulating all at once.  
  
Scully put the lunch she had made into a bag, which she carried on one shoulder, and then picked up Hope with the other. "You ready to go now?" Scully inquired of her child. Hope pulled on Scully's shirt to say yes. "Okay, then."  
  
Scully then stepped out of the house and into the woods, not bothering to lock the door behind her. She breathed in the scents of the forest heavily, delighting in the taste of natural beauty. All numbers of birds were in the tree branches above, twittering their scolding songs back and forth to each other. Scully followed the familiar path she always took, which was beginning to wear down into a trail from her constant use. The trees stretched around and above her, and the grass and undergrowth tickled on her ankles. She had come to love the feeling.  
  
She remembered when she had first gone exploring through the woods...for the first week or so being here she had not dared to venture outside the cabin and the clearing. The woods had still seemed too threatening to her. But once she had finished cleaning, she realized that she could not spend all of her time in the house, and she needed to go out and explore the surrounding forest. Being very careful with having Hope with her, she had scoured a wide circle around the house, and had found mostly trees. However, she had also discovered a small creek running through the woods. Finally, in the middle of a wide spot of the creek, she had found a small island covered with grass and shaded by a weeping willow.  
  
At first Scully did not go to the island, because she was not sure how to get across. She thought about building herself a bridge, but decided that would be even more dangerous than trying to cross by foot. Luckily, she had found a spot in the creek that had only come up to her ankles, so she could get to the island fairly easily.  
  
Scully stopped as she found herself once again at the end of the trail and the beginning of the creek path. The forest was alive and well and welcoming, and the creek garbled nonsense as it skipped over rocks and sand. And aura of pleasantness drifted up from the stream and cleaned Scully's lungs; replacing the inside sawdust of her house with the smell of pines and cool water.  
  
She held Hope closer to her as she carefully tread across the shallow water to the island on the other side. The moment she was across, she slipped her shoes off so that she could feel the long grass beneath her feet and between her toes. The branches of the weeping willow stretched out across almost all of the island, providing her with shade and a view of the outside world as through a curtain. She lay down in the grass against the slope of the island, and let Hope rest her head on her chest.  
  
"Think maybe we'll see those little yellow birds again, Hope?" Scully said with a sigh. "They can come and pick up the crumbs we leave behind and sing a song just for you."  
  
Hope just snuggled deeper into her mother's arms.  
  
"Almost everybody else is afraid of the woods," Scully told her daughter. "But not you. You're going to love this world because the trees protected you and the birds sang for you and the squirrels played for you and the water felt good on your feet."  
  
Scully had given a lot of thought to she and Hope's future. When she had first arrived at the cabin, she had figured that she would stay for just a little while, and then go home when she felt they were out of danger. But now...she wasn't sure she ever wanted to go back at all. The freedom she had discovered here was far superior to the civilization she had known for so long. Here there were no responsibilities and no obligations to anyone but herself and her child. Here she was surrounded by the beauty of nature and felt more clean and relaxed than she ever had before. She couldn't help but be reminded of Thuroe's Walden...it was good for a person to exist in nature and in solitude, away from the confines of society. What had society and her former life ever done for her, anyway? Given her a person, a person she could love and teach and trust, only to snatch him from her again and leave nothing but a constant reminder of him? She owed nothing to her life as she had known it...it had disappointed her entirely.  
  
And so Scully had been slowly coming to the decision that she wanted to remain in this sacred place for as long as she physically could. As for Hope, she would be her teacher as well as her mother. Scully knew herself to be very intelligent; she figured she could provide Hope with adequate schooling all the way up through high school. And then, once Hope wanted to, she could leave and pursue whatever dreams she may develop. If that did happen, it seemed too far off for Scully, so she didn't think of it right now. Scully had developed this desire to teach her child, and to teach her so that she was a better person. She wanted it for Hope more than anything. She felt that Mulder could want that for Hope as well.  
  
The reminder stung at the skin on her chest, and she flinched. Try as hard as she could, she could never forget the name, the face, the person. She could only place him behind this weeping willow curtain and listen to his garbled voice, like water over pebbles.  
  
And take care of their child.  
  
Scully stroked Hope, who had drifted off to sleep again. She wanted to eat the lunch she had packed, but she felt like the grass and trees and sleeping child had put her in a trance, and she couldn't move. She could only watch, and listen, and think.  
  
But Scully liked the feeling. She liked being able to use her five senses slowly and surely, savoring everything the world had to tell her. She enjoyed being able to think, to ponder and imagine and create stories in her mind. She enjoyed asking the woods her silent philosophical questions, and was always pleased with the answer she received in return.  
  
But most of all, Scully enjoyed being with Hope. She never grew tired of diaper changes or midnight checkups or hours spent trying to keep Hope from crying, because there was nothing else to wear her down besides. She enjoyed watching her daughter grow, watching her discover new things every day, and take delight in every thing she saw. She enjoyed the innocence of childhood incarnated before her, untainted by the harsh reality of civilization.  
  
Scully felt the grass on her skin, the breeze in her hair and the baby on her chest and decided that here is where she would stay.  
  
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Scully tested the soup carefully, being wary of burning her tongue on the hot broth. This was the first time she had ever made soup with vegetables from her own garden, and she was greatly anticipating the taste. Hope was entertaining herself in her playpen with some small plastic toy that rattled.  
  
The soup felt perfect to Scully, and she was very proud of her accomplishment. (Nothing like sitting down to homemade soup for dinner.) She poured the dinner into her bowl and went to the refrigerator for the iced tea and--  
  
When suddenly there was a knock on the door.  
  
Scully was frozen. That was not the knock of a tree branch against the wood or some curious woodland animal trying to get inside. That was the knock of a person, another human being. She didn't know what to do...if it was her mom, she should open it. But what if it wasn't? What if someone had come back to take her baby away from her?  
  
She was filled with a mixture of fear and contempt. How dare this person come and disturb her and her solitude! And if this person had come to hurt her or her child, they would be sorry they dared to exist. Scully carefully picked up Hope and tucked her under her jacket so that she could not easily be seen. Then she grabbed up her gun, which she always kept on the desk next to the door, and held it to her side. She pressed herself against the wall, feeling her heart pound with anticipation. It took awhile before she was even able to gather the courage to speak. "Who's there?"  
  
"Dana, it's me!" Maggie's voice came through the wood. "Please open the door."  
  
Scully nearly collapsed with the relief of hearing her mother, but she was not about to let down her guard just yet. "Are you alone?"  
  
"No, but trust me on this, Dana. Just open the door, it'll be okay."  
  
Scully's instincts told her not to. But she overcame her instincts with a burst of anxious energy and cracked the door open halfway.  
  
She saw her mother standing there, smiling at finally being able to see her daughter again. She also saw skinner standing on the other side, his deep eyes reflecting his genuine surprise and concern. But her gaze was drawn to the person standing between them. A face made up of bright hazel eyes, tired grin and messy dark hair...a face that was all too familiar.  
  
Scully turned about-face and shut the door.  
  
"Scully!" His voice stung her ears like salt on a wound, hurting her and healing her at the same time. She breathed in and out heavily, her mind spinning and twisting into an incomprehensible oblivion. (What's happening to me? How did this illusion suddenly say my name? It can't be him! He wouldn't dare show himself to me after what he did to me!)  
  
At the same time, another voice was screaming at her intensely. (Dana, what the hell do you think you're doing?! You just shut the door in Fox Mulder's face! The same Fox Mulder who fathered the child you're holding; the same Fox Mulder who has been in your thoughts for the entire past year!)  
  
This voice reached Scully's nerves first, and she opened the door just a crack, and looked out just enough...enough to see Mulder's gaze piercing into hers.  
  
Scully choked back down a sob.  
  
Mulder pressed his weight against the door and forced it open, causing Scully to step back. She held Hope against her, locked to Mulder's eyes by some invisible chain. Mulder's expression was something Scully couldn't describe; it looked like he was overjoyed and cowering in fear all at once. "Scully," he said quietly, as if saying her name would magically restore whatever unnamable thing had been lost when he disappeared. Scully tried to find words, but they refused to move past her lips, and all she could do was stare and try to hold back the moisture that was rising to her eyes.  
  
Mulder finally refused to hesitate anymore, and he moved to Scully and wrapped her arms around her, aware of the bundle that she was carrying herself. Scully suddenly found herself pressed into Mulder's chest, and for the first time she came to realize that this was no illusion, and that the man surrounding her was real and living and breathing into her hair. "It'll be okay, Scully," He whispered to her. "I'm back."  
  
"It won't be okay!" Scully countered in a choking voice. "How can it ever be okay again? You're here, after...after all this, after I thought you were gone..."  
  
"I'm sorry..." Mulder sighed, his own voice beginning to grow thick. "I'm so sorry. I need you to forgive me, if there's anything I want you to do now it's to forgive me."  
  
"I'll think about it," Scully mumbled. She instantly kicked herself for such an answer. (You'll think about it?! Of course you'll forgive him! You'd do anything for him now that he's come back to you!!)  
  
"Think about it, then," Mulder said, always being the patient one with her. "I just can't say how happy I am to see you again."  
  
Scully pulled herself away so that she could look into his face. His neck and face were spotted with multiple scars, but these scars seemed to disappear in Scully's eyes and she saw only the wonderful face of the Mulder she had known so well before she left. She could tell that Mulder was studying hers just as intensely, and he smiled at her.  
  
Just then, Hope wriggled out from underneath Scully's coat, yawned and looked directly at Mulder. Mulder stared at the baby wide-eyed, as if he had never seen a human being under the age of one before. The child suddenly felt very heavy in Scully's arms. "This is...our daughter."  
  
Mulder sighed a laugh, and Scully could tell that there was moisture beginning to fill his eyes, too. "C-can I hold her?" He finally managed to squeak out.  
  
Scully handed Hope to Mulder without saying a word. Mulder took the baby very carefully, as if afraid that if he touched her she would shatter into a million pieces. Hope stared up at Mulder with astonished eyes...she couldn't remember seeing a human being other than her mother. She was both bewildered and excited at the same time. She could sense a connection to this strange person the way she felt connected to her mother, and because of this she instantly trusted him. Mulder held her in his arms gently, and stared down at his daughter with a feeling in his blood that he had never experienced before. It was a wonderful feeling, and he thought that he could hold this baby forever just to have that feeling inside him. "How can she be?..." Mulder said quietly.  
  
"I could just as easily ask you," Scully said in an almost humorous voice. "She just...came out of nowhere. But she's ours."  
  
At that moment, Maggie and Skinner made themselves more apparent to the reunited Mulder and Scully. As much as Scully wanted to just remain alone with Mulder and the miracle of his presence, she realized that she needed to acknowledge the other people who had brought him back to her. She turned to her mother and embraced her as well. Maggie held her back and sighed, "I've been so worried about you, Dana..."  
  
"W-Where did you find him?" Scully gasped.  
  
"He came back on his own. That is his story to tell you. I know I didn't do a very good job of keeping your secret, Dana."  
  
"I'm glad you didn't, I'm so glad you didn't!" Scully said, although she was only half telling the truth. She was very happy to see her mother again, and had even considered calling her earlier.  
  
When Scully let go of Maggie, she also saw Skinner's firm smile, and Scully could tell that he had probably been more worried about her than Maggie was. "It's been very unpleasant around the office without hearing your phone call every day," Skinner said. "And not knowing where you were."  
  
Scully just smiled at her former boss, feeling a strange relief come from seeing him again. She briefly wondered why Doggett hadn't come...she knew he would have been anxious to see her.  
  
"Your mother has explained a few things to us, Scully," Skinner said. "And we're hoping that you would come back with us. I'm sure whatever danger you were in has passed in the time of two months."  
  
"Perhaps you're right..." Scully said quickly. "But I don't want to go back just yet. I would like to...stay here with Mulder. Alone. So that we can talk."  
  
Maggie and Skinner exchanged glances, apparently both of them somewhat surprised. Then they both appeared almost identically downcast. "Dana...you've been gone for so long, and everyone has been so anxious about you. How long are you planning to stay here?" Maggie asked.  
  
"Just...long enough," Scully sighed. "I just need some time, a little more time, and I promise we'll come back. I'll leave my cell phone on if you want."  
  
This helped to ease Maggie's fears just a little, but not much. She looked at the door, and then back at Dana. "Let me see my granddaughter before we go," She demanded.  
  
Mulder carefully handed Hope over to Maggie, still reluctant to let go of her. Maggie poured over Hope all the joy and affection of a proud grandma, and both Mulder and Scully couldn't help but smile. Hope giggled and cooed at Maggie's comforting embrace, still somewhat amazed at all these people who had come to see her.  
  
After awhile, Maggie finally handed Hope back to Scully, her mood becoming somber at having to leave her children again. she looked sharply at Scully. "You had better come back home soon, Dana, otherwise I just may keel over and die from lack of grandchild!"  
  
Scully smiled slightly. Skinner put his hand on Mulder's shoulder, and a look passed between them. Then Skinner and Maggie quietly and somberly left the house, leaving the three of them alone together.  
  
"So you've been here?" Mulder asked hesitantly as Scully wrapped up her bowl of soup and put it in the refrigerator for later. They had been silent for the past few minutes, and had concentrated on studying each other's faces. Both of them wanted to talk, but conversation seemed to be oozing like cold syrup.  
  
"Yes," Scully sighed. "I really like it here. It was good to be alone."  
  
"When I came back and heard that no one knew where you were, I was so afraid...I felt like I could have become sick."  
  
"Do you remember what happened to you? Where you were, who did this to you?"  
  
Unknowingly, both of them were desperate to hear of the other's experiences but were very reluctant to talk about their own. "Yes, I do remember..." Mulder looked down at the floor. "But I wish I didn't. I wish for all the world I didn't..."  
  
"Skinner said he saw you be abducted. He never changed his mind, no matter how hard Doggett tried to prove him wrong."  
  
"Skinner was right."  
  
Scully edged to Mulder slightly. "Did you let yourself be taken?"  
  
"The actual abduction I hardly remember...except that I didn't feel like I was in danger until I saw a familiar face. Then I was afraid." He breathed a long, deep sigh.  
  
"Why did they return you?"  
  
"They didn't return me. I escaped."  
  
"How on earth did you escape?!"  
  
"It's a very long and complicated story," Mulder stared down at the grain of the wood table. "One that I am sure you will eventually hear all the details of. But I'm also sure that you're not going to like some of it. When we go back to the others, we'll have to face it."  
  
"You escaped and returned and then came looking for me?"  
  
"I found Agent Doggett first. He and Skinner explained to me what had happened to you." Mulder gave Scully an upset look. "You were assigned a new partner."  
  
"It was not my choice. But it was a good choice...Doggett is a good agent and a good person. Without him I probably wouldn't be alive right now. He was often skeptical, but always supportive." Scully caught Mulder's look. "Don't be jealous, Mulder. It was hard for me to support myself, and then the baby, all alone..." Scully found her own tone becoming angry. "I remained alone for a long time waiting for you. Too long. Don't start thinking that I had it any easier than you did, because I didn't."  
  
"It wasn't my fault!" Mulder protested. "Don't you think that if I could have I would have come back to you the moment I was able? And I don't believe you know what you're talking about when you say you had it no easier than I did!"  
  
"Really?" Scully glowered at Mulder. "Do you have any idea what it was like, going through every single day trying to do my job, feeling a child growing inside me, and having everyone tell me that the person who fathered your child is dead or missing or betrayed you? Mulder, it was hell for me!"  
  
"THIS was hell!" Mulder suddenly stood, and pointed to the scars on his face. "Pins, drills, lasers, needles, saws, liquids, over and over again, EVERY SINGLE DAY. I didn't have an Agent Doggett to support me, I didn't have a baby to make me feel human! The first person to show a scrap of kindness to me all this past year wasn't even human!" His voice cracked. "You have no idea what it was like, every day, the same thing...and I never stopped thinking of you, no matter what happened to me..."  
  
Scully looked with sad eyes at Mulder. When she had thought about his coming back, she had never imagined anything like this...them yelling at each other. She didn't want this...she wanted to hold Mulder, to have him close to her so that she could tell him how she missed him and how thankful, how eternally thankful she was that he had come back...and that she loved him...  
  
"I told you I was sorry," Mulder stated, his voice now quiet. "What more do you want?"  
  
"I want..." Scully stopped. What more could she ask for? She had Mulder, she had their child, she had a home and she had his apology. "I want you to prove to me that it will never happen again." Scully left herself shocked at her bizarre request.  
  
Mulder's reaction was just the opposite. "Alright then. I love you."  
  
Scully was completely speechless.  
  
"There is your proof. I have said it before, and I say it again now. I love you. As long as this is true, we can never be separated like this again." Mulder paused, his face feeling hot, and he gulped down air. "Are you happy now?"  
  
Scully just stared at Mulder, and she shook her head very slowly. "I.....I don't think I can ever be unhappy again..."  
  
That was exactly what Mulder wanted to hear. He reached out his hands to bring Scully to him, suddenly desperate to hold her, and Scully did likewise. As they did so, their hands met and their palms touched.  
  
And something unexpected happened.  
  
Something like an electric shock passed between their skin. Mulder watched in amazement as blue light flashed against his skin, and then formed back into the firebird symbol, glowing just as brightly as when he had first touched the mural on the Argothian ship.  
  
But the symbol also appeared on Scully's hand, lighting up her skin with a crimson red instead of blue. Scully cried out with horror and snatched her hand away from Mulder's, but the symbol continued to glow. Scully's face was a mixture of shock and disbelief as she stared at the thing on her hand. She tried to rub it away, but it remained just as bright as ever. "Mulder, what is this? What happened to me?!"  
  
"The firebird symbol..." Mulder said quietly. He had not expected this to happen at all. "...Just touching made it come back."  
  
"Do you know what this is?" Scully demanded.  
  
"Where is Hope?" Mulder ignored Scully's question. "I need to see her!"  
  
Before Scully could answer, he saw Hope sitting in her playpen behind the table. Mulder rushed to the baby, and picked her up, gazing with wonder into his daughter's deep eyes. Then Mulder carefully pressed his hand against Hope's tiny palm.  
  
The same thing happened to the baby. Electricity passed between them, and the glowing symbol appeared in purple upon Hope's hand. Hope gazed at this strange occurrence and giggled at it in delight. Scully, however, was not quite as thrilled. She rushed to Hope and pulled out her hand to look at it. The symbols were identical except that they were different colors and Hope's was much smaller.  
  
"What does this mean?" Scully gasped.  
  
Mulder sucked in his breath. How on earth could he explain the firebird legend to Scully? There was so much involved, so much at stake...and he didn't even know where to begin.  
  
"What does this mean?!" Scully's eyes shot to Mulder.  
  
"It means..." Mulder hesitated. "It means that our baby is special. More special than you or I realize."  
  
"But what does this thing do?" Scully said, rubbing anxiously at the glow on Hope's hand.  
  
"It does nothing..." Mulder began. "Except mark us."  
  
"Mark us as what?"  
  
"As living legends."  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
Mulder took a deep breath. He was going to have to try and explain it now...it would be difficult, but he would try. "Scully...while I was on the ship, right before I came back, I found pictures on a wall that caused this to appear on my hand." He held up his palm. "Pictures of things familiar to me...of dragons, of unicorns, of birds made out of fire. Those pictures, those firebirds...they were us."  
  
Scully said nothing. What could she say?  
  
Mulder continued. "The pictures represented a legend that the...that the aliens believed in. It talked of a child, a child with magic blood, that could destroy their race completely. And now all they want to do is kill this child, because it is the only thing they are afraid of. And the child that this legend speaks of is ours."  
  
Scully's lips trembled, but she said nothing for awhile. Then she looked back at Hope, gazing up innocently at them and wondering what her two parents could be so nervous about. "How do you know this?" She finally asked.  
  
Mulder bit his lip. "While on was on the ship, I also met some other aliens, but not the same ones that you know of. They were different races, and they became my friends. They explained the legend to me, and helped me to get back home. One of them, Yallus, came back with me...she's with the Lone Gunmen right now. There are hundreds of races out there, Scully, in this corner of the galaxy, all of them just as threatened as ours is...and all of them depending on our baby."  
  
Scully looked away from Mulder, not wanting to hear these things right now. If what Mulder said was true, and they were the realities of some alien legend, then they would have to return to the life she had tried so hard to leave behind, the life of danger and suspicion and threats that she wanted to shield their daughter from. She had been desperately hoping that now Mulder was here, they could live together in isolated paradise. But now Mulder had come back with talk of aliens, and legends, and she realized that they had obligations to fulfill. Obligations not just to the community, or the world, but to the whole damn universe.  
  
She turned around, and picked up Hope. Scully held her baby close to her chest, as if trying to shield her from Mulder's words. "What can she do? She's just a little baby! If what you say is true...how can she possibly destroy a entire alien race? I don't understand it at all!"  
  
"I don't really understand it, either," Mulder sighed. "All I know is what I heard, and what I saw. And somehow...I believe it. I don't understand it all, but I believe it."  
  
"So what do we do now?"  
  
"I...I don't know." Mulder shook his head. "This is just as confusing for me as it is for you. With this information and its implications, I feel like we should do something, but I don't know what. I don't even know if we're supposed to do anything at all, or just let whatever is supposed to happen happen."  
  
"Let's do nothing," Scully breathed. "Just...nothing. After all this time apart, and we come together and there's some greater purpose for us all... It's too much. No aliens, no legends, no obligations. Just us three, together. That's all I want, and that's all I need."  
  
Mulder came up to Scully, his gaze tired and thankful, and put his hands on her waist. "I already made a promise to you: I'll never let us be separated again. No matter what may come in the future. You know that I feel the way you do...I care only about us three. And it's that belief that I'm going to put first in my mind whenever I have a choice to make."  
  
Scully buried her face in Mulder's chest, and they embraced tightly. Suddenly, the last two months Scully had spent in what she thought was paradise was instantly nothing. This was true happiness, this envelopment in Mulder and their emotions. She wanted to remain here forever, feeling his skin against hers, his breath in her hair, and his words in her ear. The glowing colors on their hands may have been reminders of their coming responsibility, but for now, all that mattered was them together.  
  
Mulder leaned Scully back so that he could see her face, and kissed her forehead. She shuddered warmly in his grip. They did not need to speak; they just needed to be, to understand.  
  
"It's...time for me to put Hope to sleep." After a long time, Scully finally dared to use her voice.  
  
"I'll put Hope to bed," Mulder answered. "You get ready for bed yourself..." He paused. "I'll be joining you in a minute."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
BRING-A-RING-A-RING.....BRING-A-RING-A-RING.....  
  
Mulder forced one eye open, his movements slow, and the first thing that he saw was the back of Scully's head. The sound persisted loudly, irritating his morning hearing. It sounded vaguely familiar, but it took awhile for him to identify it exactly...Scully's cell phone.  
  
At first, Mulder ignored it completely. It wasn't time to get up yet, as far as he was concerned. The past five days he and Scully had not gotten up until the sun blazing through the window had hit their bodies, heating the bed when it was already warm. He simply snuggled himself deeper into the sheets and the feel of Scully's body warmth against him. After awhile, the phone stopped ringing.  
  
The last few days had been filled with a contentment that he had never known before. He had very easily been sucked into Scully's quiet world of spending time with nature and with Hope. Mulder had fallen in love with his daughter the moment he saw her, and he loved watching everything she did. He especially enjoyed seeing Scully and Hope being together. He saw the joy in Scully's eyes, the joy of motherhood that she had longed to have but had never experienced until now. He loved seeing her be a mother. It was a side of her he had never experienced before, but was glad to experience it now.  
  
Of course, Mulder and Scully had started making time for themselves only. They were not sure how it had started, but it had seemed to be the natural action to take now that they were together again. And throughout the entire time, they were both constantly wondering why they had not started this sooner.  
  
BRING-A-RING-A-RING.....BRING-A-RING-A-RING.....  
  
The burring of Scully's cell phone began again, and Mulder winced at the sound. Scully moved next to him, and he realized that she was already awake. "Mmm...phone, Mulder," She sighed.  
  
"I know."  
  
"I'll get it." Scully forced herself up, moving the comforters away from her. She fumbled around tiredly on the top of the desk next to the bed until she found her cell phone, and switched it on. "Hullo?"  
  
For a moment, Scully was quiet. Then Mulder watched as Scully's eyebrows furrowed and a look of utter astonishment covered her face. "Wha?...Who is this?!" She asked, confused.  
  
"What's the matter?" Mulder asked.  
  
"I dunno..." Scully looked at the phone as if she were holding a rotting banana. "It...it sounds like some kind of bird screeching its head off! What the..."  
  
"A bird?" Mulder echoed, his mind still foggy with the morning. Then, he sprang up as though electrocuted with memory. "A bird! Here, Scully, give me the phone!"  
  
Seeing the excitement in Mulder's face, Scully handed him the cell phone. She wondered who...or what...could be calling them at this time...  
  
"Yallus, is that you?" Mulder asked.  
  
KREEK-AK-AK-AKA! EEERI-RERKIKKA-KI-KI-REEKAK-AAARKEEE-EK-EK- EK-EK-EKKAR!  
  
Mulder could recognize that voice anywhere. "Yallus! Wait, hold on a second, I don't have my translo--"  
  
KREE-KIK-KIK-EEEEAK! AK-ARK-IK-IK-EEIIIIIR!  
  
Mulder was scrambling out of bed, looking on the floor for his pants. "Yallus, wait, I can't understand you! I'm getting my translo! Hold on..."  
  
"Mulder?..." Scully said, completely puzzled.  
  
Mulder found his pants, and fished around in his pockets until he found the black translo. With Scully watching him, bewildered beyond words, he fit the translo in his ear and picked up the phone again. "Alright, Yallus, go ahead."  
  
[--Vodka!]  
  
"What?!!"  
  
"Mulder, who on earth are you..."  
  
[Look, I've been explaining it to you for the past five minutes! We found a fuel source that we can use instead of chark.]  
  
Mulder was stupefied for a minute, his brain not making connections. (Fuel source? Chark?) Then he finally remembered...chark was a fuel for the Argothian sky attack gunner; the fighter ship that he and Yallus had returned in. They had been low on fuel by the time they reached Earth. Mulder balanced the phone on his shoulder and started to put on his pants. "Say it again...what about a fuel source?"  
  
Yallus sounded excited. [Those friends of yours, the Lone Gunmen, and I went back to the attack gunner and took a sample of chark for them to study. They looked at it, and said it was almost the exact same stuff as this thing you Humans drink called Vodka! So now we can put in enough fuel for me to leave your homeworld.] She paused. [Although why any intelligent race would want to actually drink chark I have no idea...]  
  
Mulder couldn't help but grin at the thought. He remembered Yallus mentioning that Argothians had discovered a planet full of chark, which was why they used it for fuel...he wondered how some Humans would react if they knew that somewhere out there was a planet covered in Vodka. "Well, that's good that you were able to find a fuel source. I told you that the Lone Gunmen would be helpful."  
  
Scully, meanwhile, had almost completely given up on trying to make sense out of what Mulder was talking about and who he was even talking to. Sensing that something was going on, however, she got up out of bed and started to get dressed. She glanced over at Hope's crib, and saw that the baby was still asleep.  
  
[Mulder, listen to me,] Yallus continued. [You need to come back right away. Bring the red firebird with you.]  
  
"Come back? Right now?" Mulder sounded like a kid that was being called in to do dinner and homework. "But..."  
  
[It's important! The Argothians know where we are, they could be coming at any moment...]  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Mulder, I'm going to go get us some breakfast," Scully sighed. "Because as soon as you're done talking you're going to give a long and thorough explanation to me about all this."  
  
Mulder was beginning to feel just a little too frantic. "Hold on a minute, Scully..." He went back to the phone. "Yallus, what do you mean?"  
  
[When we went back to the attack gunner, I found the position tracker on and blinking...]  
  
"Position tracker? What's that?"  
  
[It's a device Argothians install into almost all of their ships, that connects them to the head base ship,] Yallus explained. [It acts as a homing beacon...Argothians on the head base ship can locate their craft from any point in the five sectors. I'm afraid I forgot to deactivate it when we stole the thing.]  
  
Mulder felt the anxiety in him start to build. "So...what does this mean?"  
  
"Mulder!" Scully's frantic voice came from the living room. "Mulder, hang up the phone now!!"  
  
Mulder was pulled between two different situations he needed to attend to, and he chose the one on the phone. [It means the Argothians most likely know where their missing sky attack gunner is. And after all that happened when we escaped, they probably won't be feeling generous when they come to retrieve it,] Yallus warned.  
  
"Mulder, please come here!" Scully's voice sounded desperate.  
  
"Hold on, Scully!" Mulder told her, and turned back to Yallus. "Do they know...do they know that we are the firebirds?"  
  
[I don't know, but I'm certain they won't be taking any chances. You need to come back right away, so we can--]  
  
"MULDER! Hang up the phone and come here NOW!"  
  
Now Mulder was finally getting anxious about Scully's cries. "Yallus, I have to go, I'll call you back!"  
  
[Mulder! You must...]  
  
"We'll come home soon! Just...wait for us!"  
  
"Mulder!!"  
  
Before Yallus had a chance to speak again, Mulder hung up the cell phone and threw it aside. He then marched into the living room. "Scully, what is--"  
  
He stopped mid-sentence, suddenly too shocked to use his voice. Scully turned and looked at Mulder with an expression of fear and confusion, and Mulder's reaction was nothing more than a reflection of Scully's face. Standing in the front doorway was a hauntingly familiar figure...a figure with steel gray hair, troubling, grayish eyes and wrinkled, pale skin.  
  
Cancer Man gave Mulder and Scully a broad smile. "Good morning to you, firebirds."  
  
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo  
  
Mulder moved towards Scully until they were standing next to each other, renewing each other's strength with their unity. They were afraid, there was no denying that, but they both felt stronger by each other's side. Cancer Man said nothing, just sighed deeply and let them ponder over the unwelcome miracle of his presence.  
  
Meanwhile, all sorts of thoughts were passing through Mulder's mind as he stared at Cancer Man. (What could he be doing here...what would his purpose be here but to hurt us or our baby?) A terrifying realization came to his mind out of nowhere. (He is...Cancer Man is the dragon! It would make perfect sense...he has tried to end our lives many times before, he has made a pact with the Argothians for his life...he probably also staged my abduction. He even breathes fire and smoke! He has to be the dragon...otherwise how would he know about the firebird legend?)  
  
"What are you doing here?" Mulder demanded between his teeth.  
  
"I have not seen any of you for quite awhile," Cancer Man answered. "I figured that now would be as good a time as any to drop by."  
  
Mulder spoke his thoughts aloud. "You're the dragon, aren't you?" Cancer Man didn't answer. "Get out of my house, dragon!!" He exclaimed, his voice rising.  
  
Cancer Man chuckled to himself. "Of course, you would assume that. It makes perfect sense to you. I am sorry to disappoint you, blue firebird, but I am not your dragon. I'm not lucky enough to be a participant in the Argothian legend." He sighed. "Even those crackpot friends of yours get a role, but I don't."  
  
As he was speaking, Cancer Man was slowly making his way towards them. As he was doing so, Mulder and Scully were backing away from him, remaining together. Scully began to feel the same threatened energy that Mulder was experiencing. "How do we know you're not lying?" She exclaimed. "You've never told the truth to us before."  
  
"It doesn't matter whether he's lying or not," Mulder said angrily. "We know what he really is! And I want him to leave this house right now!"  
  
Cancer Man continued to ignore Mulder's commands. "How is your little daughter doing? Well, I hope?...No pun intended."  
  
"YOU WON'T COME ANYWHERE NEAR THE BABY!" Mulder warned, his nerves taunt. His voice was loud, and yet quivering, for he feared for his daughter's safety...  
  
"That baby," Cancer Man hissed, "is your proof that I am not the dragon."  
  
Both Mulder and Scully were shocked into silence. They had no idea how to answer this.  
  
Cancer Man had them where he wanted them. "You, Scully...when you found out you were pregnant, you didn't know where the baby had come from, did you? You knew nothing about this child other than Mulder was somehow the father and you the mother. And after all this time, after the baby was born and has been growing healthily for five months, it is still a mystery to you." He looked over Mulder and Scully's agitated faces with mute interest. "You probably would never know if I didn't tell you now."  
  
"If you're going to say something important, then say it now and leave us," Mulder said in a low voice. "We don't want you here."  
  
"You know, most other people would be thanking me without stopping if I did for them what I have done for you. It was I who was able to put the pieces together to give you your child.  
  
"You see, having been in contact with the aliens often when my colleagues still lived, I heard their legend of the firebirds. Most of my colleagues didn't think it was anything more than a legend, and concentrated on what they felt was the best way to protect themselves from the coming invasion. I, however, was fascinated by the legend and its implications. I must admit, Mulder, that when you and Scully were first partnered together the firebird legend did not even cross my mind. Everyone perceived you as another threat to our cause. But as time passed, and as I watched you two interact and grow, I became aware of exactly how close I was to the legend incarnated.  
  
"Now, I must explain something to you. As magic as the firebird legend is, it is also science. Almost all other alien races in this universe are vulnerable to the Argothian's life- force, the black oil. However, there are chemical compounds and natural compounds that are resistant to it, and even destroy it. My colleagues' and I's main purpose was to create this compound; and we succeeded, to an extent."  
  
Mulder started to put events and situations together. "You mean the vaccine. The vaccine I gave to Scully."  
  
"Yes," Cancer Man continued. "Both of you have, at one time, been infected by the Argothian life-force, and have received the vaccine, preventing you from ever being infected again. This resistance is incorporated throughout your system - your blood, your skin, your genes. And so the firebirds are very powerful in magic...  
  
"...But now powerful enough. As effective as your resistance is to the Argothians, it is still an artificial resistance. This causes the Argothians great concern, but not the fear that they feel when they hear 'Child of the Fire.' For since this resistance is incorporated into your genes, should you chose to reproduce, the genes would be passed on to your offspring.  
  
"But it is not the same as before...any child of yours is born immune to the Argothian plague. A natural resistance to the universe's greatest sickness. I have found the irony of the whole thing to be quite amazing...that my colleagues have fought so tirelessly against you, and yet in a single moment of passion you could create perfectly what we for the past 50 years have tried to produce. I suppose it just goes to show you that the most natural ways of doing things are generally the best.  
  
"That is what the Argothians fear the most...a being that is born resistant to them, and born to destroy them. They have never encountered such a phenomenon before. And it is not enough that your child is merely resistant to the virus...she can also kill it. Any Argothian life-force that tried to enter her body would most likely destroy itself in the process. Imagine how the Argothians would feel if there was a creature out there somewhere that could kill them if they dared to touch it. Now imagine that this power was given to all of that race of creatures...and then passed on to every other alien race in this galaxy. The Argothians would be powerless without the effectiveness of their life-force. They could be wiped out completely."  
  
Mulder gulped down air. "That may explain how our baby is the way she is...but that still doesn't explain how Scully became pregnant in the first place."  
  
Cancer Man couldn't help but grin. "Yes, there is that essential little detail, isn't there? It would be somewhat difficult for the Child of the Fire to exist if the red firebird couldn't conceive."  
  
"Quit playing around and answer the question," Scully said through her teeth.  
  
"The point is, I waited as long as I could for you two to come around to your senses. Apparently, I waited in vain. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. When I last met Scully, on our little excursion to my summer home, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity."  
  
Scully felt her stomach turn at the reminder of the mistake she had made so long ago, and the knowledge of where Cancer Man might be taking this explanation...  
  
"Although I must admit, Scully, that I was less than honest with you during our time together. The cure for any sickness had nothing to do with the disk that I showed you. Rather, it had everything to do with you. While you slept, I had a few friends of mine implant a fertilized embryo in your womb - one made from the necessary components of the two firebirds. I was able to put together the fertilized embryo earlier before giving it back to you. That is yet another thing you should be thankful for...I could have had it so that a different woman carried the child. But seeing you, and your own secret longing to have children, I let you carry it and give birth right from the beginning."  
  
"I don't understand!" Mulder exclaimed, his mind boiling over with confusion. "Where would you get Scully's ova, or anything else to make that happen?!"  
  
"Oh, that part was easy," Cancer Man answered. "Being in close contact with the Argothians, my colleagues and I were given a certain freedom to their storage facilities, including things concerning their abductees. And as far as Mulder's contribution goes...let's just say that I have had encounters with you, Mulder, that have enabled me to obtain the needed missing half. I must say that I at first simply wanted to return some of Scully's ova to her and let you two create the Child of the Fire by the most traditional means, just to add to the magic of the legend. But time was running short...as it is now.  
  
"Do you understand now why I cannot be the dragon the legend speaks of? After all, what is the dragon's purpose in the story? To attempt to kill the firebirds, wound the blue firebird, and then be wounded by the red one. Then he returns as a stronger, Argothian dragon, still intent on destroying the firebirds. Then, the Child of the Fire kills the dragon instead.  
  
"I gave you the child you hold dear. If the dragon's only purpose is to kill the Child, then why should he go to the trouble to make it live in the first place? Why not just prevent it from existing at all? It would not make any sense for me to do what I have done and still be the dragon, now would it?"  
  
Mulder wanted to counter Cancer Man right away, but his tongue stayed firmly in his mouth. Try as he could, he couldn't think of anything that he could prove Cancer Man wrong with. If he had given Scully their baby by putting it together himself, then he couldn't be the dragon and still fit with the legend. Mulder also couldn't think of any way that Scully could have become pregnant otherwise...Cancer Man's explanation was the only one they had received, and the only one that sounded possible. (Can it be that...he's telling us the truth?)  
  
Scully was a few steps ahead of Mulder. "But why are you telling us this now? Why suddenly show up now and spill the whole story?"  
  
"Because you need to know, if you are going to use your knowledge to carry out the legend."  
  
"Carry it out?"  
  
"There is a war coming here, very soon," Cancer Man warned. "The Argothians know who you are, and they know where you are. They will strike with all the force they have to destroy the Child of the Fire. And if they do...I can guarantee you that there will be no other force in this universe that can stop them from ruling it."  
  
Mulder did not like the sound of this at all. The idea of an entire race of hostile aliens coming specifically to kill their baby was not exactly happy news. "What do we do?" He asked after awhile.  
  
"Do as the legend says," Cancer Man turned, and headed for the door. "After all, it ends in your favor."  
  
"Wait a minute!" Scully stopped him. "Where are you going?"  
  
"To do as you should be doing - preparing for the war. Nobody wants to be caught off guard." He turned to go again.  
  
"Answer me one more thing!" Mulder called after him. "What has happened to you all this time? The last thing we heard was Alex Krycek tell us that you were dying." As Mulder asked his question, he felt Scully's body beside his suddenly go tense, and he saw her expression become anxious.  
  
Cancer Man's eyebrows raised. "Yes...Krycek would say that to you. Perhaps he was telling you the truth, perhaps he wasn't. Or perhaps it was I who wasn't telling him the truth. Either way, I am alive and well, and I'm afraid that's one secret I'm not willing to share."  
  
Just at that moment, a loud crying came from the bedroom...Hope was awake, and wanting attention. Scully turned her gaze to the bedroom, suddenly wanting to go to her child.  
  
Cancer Man nodded towards the crying. "Take very good care of that child, firebirds...she is aptly named, for she is the hope of this world as well as the hundreds of other worlds that reside in this small spot in the universe. She has amazing abilities beyond even those which you know now...and which you shall see develop as she grows older."  
  
With that, Cancer Man turned around and left the house, carefully shutting the door behind him. As soon as he was gone, Scully rushed to the continued crying in the bedroom. Mulder gazed after the front door, his mind whirling with thoughts, and then followed her.  
  
Scully picked up Hope out of her playpen and held her to her chest. Mulder could tell that Scully was terribly shaken by all that had just gone on, and the only way she could calm herself was to hold her child close to her. Even so, her attempt to comfort herself only reminded her more of the immense responsibility that had been heaped upon them, and Hope felt very heavy in her arms. Mulder came in behind her, and she felt him put his hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?" He said quietly.  
  
"I don't think so..." Scully breathed. She turned to face him, her eyes somewhat misty. "She's just a baby...she doesn't deserve to be caught up in all this..."  
  
"Scully," Mulder looked at her with deep concern. "Why did you become all tense when I asked Cancer Man about what Krycek told us?"  
  
Scully opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Mulder thought he saw her grip on the baby become tighter as she pondered over how to answer him. "Mulder...there's something about what happened to me that I haven't told anyone yet. Not you, or Doggett, or even my mom."  
  
"What?"  
  
She hesitated before speaking again, the memory of the event lodging her words in her throat. "The...the man who attacked Hope and I...was someone who we've seen before."  
  
Mulder instantly got what Scully was hinting at. "Krycek?"  
  
She nodded.  
  
"But...why?!" Mulder said, completely confused. "Of all the people in the world, why Krycek? Why would he be after Hope?"  
  
"I don't know!" Scully said, rocking their baby back and forth, her voice thick. "I don't know why...all I know is that it frightened me so much, seeing him there, not knowing what he was going to do..."  
  
The situations that had before been a mixture of pure confusion suddenly seemed to make sense to Mulder, and he gasped aloud at the realization. "Scully! You said that you shot him when he attacked you, right?"  
  
"Three times, point blank. I think I killed him."  
  
"If the legend is correct, then you didn't..."  
  
Scully realized what Mulder had discovered earlier, and eyes became wide with fright. "You don't mean to say that..."  
  
"Krycek is the dragon!" Mulder finished for her. "Now it does make sense...he has attempted to kill us just as often as Cancer Man has. His last talking with us was right before I was abducted...the dragon wounds the blue firebird. And then he attacked you, and you shot him...the red firebird wounds the dragon."  
  
"He's still alive, then?" Scully said, her fear mounting. Mulder had explained the exact firebird legend to her in detail, and she knew it just about as well as he did. "He can't be! I shot him three times! He just can't..."  
  
"It is possible," Mulder sighed. "As much as I would like to think that he's gone, it is possible that he survived."  
  
Scully did not respond. She looked down at Hope, now quiet and nestled contentedly in Scully's breast. It was hard to imagine that such a small, helpless creature could be so powerful, and so frightening to other creatures that were so dangerous. And yet here she was, holding and nursing this powerful entity.  
  
"So...what do we do now?"  
  
Mulder sighed heavily, and gazed about at the small cabin that had quickly become home. He knew that he was going to miss this place. "We have to go back now. It's time."  
  
Scully knew that was what Mulder was going to say, and it was the last thing she wanted to hear. However, she also know that he was right, as little as she wanted to admit it. "What can we do once we get back? How are we helping things any more there than we are here?"  
  
"We can prepare," Mulder said, "and we can be with other people. We have this amazing gift with us, Scully...it's our duty to share this gift with other people."  
  
"Mulder, who will realize this?" Scully asked. "What do we tell people? That our baby somehow can cure an alien virus that's eventually going to infect us all? No one will buy it! The idea would be completely ludicrous to them...it's hard enough to believe for us."  
  
"We'll just have to deal with it when we get back," Mulder said, putting his hand on his daughter's head. He felt a strange sort of strength come from touching Hope. "We'll go one step at a time...deal with problems as they come. For now, all we can do is prepare for what we think may be coming."  
  
Scully looked down at Mulder's hand on Hope's head, and sighed. "Well then...will you help me pack?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
Scully turned around as if to start some task, but she stopped again. "You just take care of Hope for awhile, and I'll pack." Mulder offered. Scully nodded in silent agreement, and took the time she had to hold her child and think.  
  
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
Scully's car pulled to a stop in the damp and dank parking lot, the rain plunking on the car's hood and the pavement. For just a moment, as soon as the car's engine died down, Mulder and Scully sat and stared at the rain outside silently. Then Mulder turned his gaze towards Scully. "We're there."  
  
It was definitely the understatement of the year. The last eight hours spent driving had been very tiring for the both of them. Mulder had made a few calls to Skinner, Doggett and Yallus to arrange a meeting time and place for them, and there had been a little conversation between them, but other than that they had hardly spoken. Scully found it strange...before she and Mulder could easily carry on conversations in the car, but that ability seemed to have been lost along with the many other things that had disappeared when Mulder had.  
  
"Let's hurry," Scully finally said, "so we won't have the baby be out in the rain for too long."  
  
Mulder nodded, and they jumped out of the car with the rain attacking them as they exited. Scully opened up the back door, took Hope out of her carseat, and sheltered the baby from the rain with her overcoat. Together the three of them darted for the front door of Mulder's apartment building.  
  
Once safely inside, they headed up for Mulder's apartment, and Hope began to cry. Scully shushed her, and they went up the elevator in silence besides. Still not saying a word, they traveled all the way down the hallway to the #42.  
  
Just as before, Mulder knocked three times slowly on the door to his apartment. Scully clutched Hope tightly, almost afraid of what would be waiting for them behind the door. It seemed like an eternity since she had seen any of the friends she had left behind, and she did not know how she would act around them. After all, it was really she that had abandoned them, and it was she that was faced with the delimma of asking their forgiveness.  
  
As the doorknob jiggled, Mulder gave Scully a look that was not a smile but was reassuring anyway. Skinner opened the door and gave them a relieved grin. "You're here finally...we've all been waiting for you. Please come in now." He ushered them into Mulder's apartment.  
  
Scully instantly recognized almost everyone in the apartment. Skinner, whom she had seen less than a week ago, was looking tired but still very relieved to see them. Her mother was even more anxious than Skinner, and came up quickly to her daughter and granddaughter. Doggett had made himself at home on Mulder's couch, and he looked up at Scully with a face she could never forget. It was obvious that he had been very distressed and hurt by her disappearance...she wondered how quickly he would forgive her. If she even deserved forgiveness at all.  
  
The Lone Gunmen were also there. Unlike the more somber members of the group, they appeared absolutely ecstatic. Whatever they had been doing recently, they had been having fun with it.  
  
The last person Scully did not recognize at all, and made Scully gasp aloud with shock. This tall, red-feathered entity Scully could only assume was Yallus. As they had been packing to go Mulder had told her extensively about Yallus, and had warned her not to make a big deal once they met. However, Scully still couldn't hide her obvious surprise.  
  
Everyone crowded around Mulder and Scully as they entered the apartment, and Scully stood close to Mulder for fear of her baby being run down. Everyone began talking at once, and it was Yallus's loud voice that drowned out the others.  
  
[Firebirds!] She exclaimed, [you don't realize how incredible it is to see you all together!] She gazed at Scully carefully, looking over the creature that was indirectly the cause of the deaths of her own husband and child. Scully just stared back. She felt very nervous having this alien thing screeching in her face, considering Mulder with his translo was the only one who could understand her. Scully instinctively held Hope tighter to guard her.  
  
Yallus noticed, and looked down at the small bundle in Scully's arms with a gasp of amazement. It took a moment for her to regain her voice. [Is...is that...]  
  
Mulder just nodded.  
  
Yallus inched her hands carefully towards the baby, reluctant and yet desperate to touch this thing that had the power to stop the Argothian invasion. Scully jerked Hope away in response, and Yallus looked a little concerned.  
  
Mulder gave Scully a look that said he was somewhat disappointed. He wanted Scully to have the same trust in Yallus that he had in her. Scully looked at the floor. "I......."  
  
Yallus understood what Scully was trying to say, and looked absolutely horrified. [My dearest woman! If I so much as harm a single cell on that precious child, you have my permission to kill me with the most terrible form of execution you can imagine!!]  
  
"What did she say?" Scully asked.  
  
"She said she'd never dream of hurting Hope," Mulder sighed.  
  
[That's her name?] Yallus inquired, and smiled somewhat. [Hmmm...very appropriate.]  
  
The Lone Gunmen, who could not restrain themselves anymore, forced their way up to Mulder with looks of excitement. Mulder tried to calm them down as they all started talking at once.  
  
"Mulder, where on earth did you get her?!..."  
  
"Well obviously I didn't get her on earth..."  
  
"That technology is absolutely astounding!"  
  
"We tried taking apart a translo...the entire thing is built so simply, it's a wonder we didn't think of it ourselves..."  
  
"And the ship! Mulder, you have no idea how lucky you are to have gotten to fly in that thing..."  
  
"...Just one engine can make the thing go faster than the speed of light! We wanted to study it, but..."  
  
"Okay, okay, enough!" Mulder waved the Lone Gunmen away from him like the ice cream truck man waving away a group of kids. "You can tell me all about the things you found later. We have other things to do right now."  
  
"We do..." Doggett stood suddenly, and everyone looked towards him. He appeared just a little bit nervous. "This past week at the FBI has not exactly been a walk in the park for me. I think the FBI is becoming suspicious of us."  
  
"Suspicious? Why?" Scully asked. She felt somewhat strange talking to Doggett like this; as if the past two months had never happened. She knew that somehow she owed something to him, after she had abandoned him to ward off the FBI and the paranormal alone. But it seemed like Doggett was silently pardoning her for her crimes, and she was silently glad that he was. He was strangely understanding like that.  
  
"You forget, Agent Scully," (She found it somewhat odd that they still used the term "agent'" when speaking to each other.) "That the FBI knows next to nothing about Mulder coming back. As far as they know, Mulder disappeared and was possibly conspiring against the FBI. And even with your baby, Agent Scully, they're suspicious of your sudden disappearance. Now with the way AD Skinner and I have been behaving around the office, with what has happened and what we know, they're nearly at the breaking point. There's too much secrecy, and they can't stand it."  
  
Both Mulder and Scully considered this information carefully. But truth be told, the FBI's opinion of their doings was the last thing on their minds right now. Doggett was obviously the one who was concerned the most, since it was his job at stake.  
  
"They'll eventually find out about your return, Mulder, and then once you explain everything to them, maybe they'll ease up on their suspicions," Skinner said in a voice that was only halfway believing itself.  
  
"I highly doubt that," Mulder sighed. "But it doesn't matter now."  
  
[We're here because I'm going to be leaving soon,] Yallus announced after a pause.  
  
"You're leaving?" Everyone could detect the undertone of regret in Mulder's voice.  
  
[Yes...now that I can refuel the attack gunner, I can leave your homeworld. I have to leave right away, because the Argothians are going to be coming here soon, I just know it.]  
  
"You're leaving us alone to fight the Argothians?!" Mulder blurted. "But...you know more about them than anyone else! I thought you would want to stay and help us fight them! We can't..."  
  
[You crazy Human!] Yallus said, and put her hand on Mulder's shoulder reassuringly. [I'm not running away from the Argothians...I'm going to go get help! There's no way I'm letting the firebirds' race fight this war alone and unprepared...you're going to need all the help you can get.] She paused, and looked at Scully carefully. [There's only one thing that I ask from you in return.]  
  
"What is it?"  
  
[I need a sample of the blood from the Child of the Fire,] Yallus said, her voice desperate. [Without it, no one in the ULR will believe a word I say about what's happened to me. I also need it so that we can begin spreading it out to all the other races of the five sectors.]  
  
"Wait, Yallus...how can just a small blood sample be passed on to billions of creatures and hundreds of different races?"  
  
[Think, Mulder!] Yallus squawked. [We can't use its actual blood! Especially for all the races, whose chemical makeup is probably very different from yours. We make synthetic copies! Your race is familiar with biotechnology, isn't it? You'd better begin preparing your own copy for your race...you're going to need it.]  
  
Mulder looked from Yallus to Scully and then to Hope. Now he understood how this part of the legend played out...they had to use Hope's blood as a model for a new vaccination, one that was superior to the one he and Scully had received. (The Child of the Fire spreads its blood out to the riding army...and they are empowered with the same magic.)  
  
"Scully, Yallus wants us to give her a sample of Hope's blood," Mulder told her.  
  
Scully did not like the way that sounded, and she shot a wary glance at Yallus. "Why?"  
  
"So that she can take it back with her and use it to make a vaccination for all the other alien races. We both know what our child can do, Scully...now we just have to use it."  
  
Scully was still very reluctant. She knew that taking a small sample of blood from Hope would be no more difficult than taking her to get her needed shots, but she still did not feel comfortable doing it. She could not think of a good excuse not to, though. "Are you sure that's what we need to do, Mulder?" She finally mumbled.  
  
Mulder could see Scully's anxiety, and he came up to her and put his hands on her shoulders to reassure her. "I'm sure. Don't worry, the baby will be fine, and we'll be helping billions of different people out there."  
  
[To put it lightly,] Yallus added.  
  
"We'd better get going," Skinner told them. "We can briefly stop by the FBI, so we can inform them that Agent Doggett and I will be out of the office for a little while. And we can also get some syringes."  
  
"We'd also need to stop by the liquor store...for fuel," Langly added, snickering to himself at the thought.  
  
With a silent agreement passing between all of them that now was the time, they all filed out of Mulder's apartment and went for their different vehicles.  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
Scully was all too familiar with the sights, sounds and smells of the scenery that surrounded them. They were back in the woods, heading silently through the trees and shrubs. True, it wasn't the woods of Vermont that Scully knew so well, but it was still a familiar experience that she instantly welcomed. She carried Hope carefully as they tread over the uneven terrain. The baby was awake, and silent, content to gaze around at the trees that stretched up neverending before her.  
  
Scully looked down quickly at the small band-aid they had put over Hope's arm when they had taken the blood sample. Hope had obviously cried, but not nearly as loudly and long as Scully had assumed she would. It was as if she somehow knew that this pain she was experiencing would turn out good, and she decided to bear it as best she could. Scully, meanwhile, had been half-expecting Hope's blood to look unusual or at least obviously different. It could have been purple, or worse yet, green and acidic, but it appeared perfectly normal to her. It was hard to imagine that something so simple and natural could have such serious consequences.  
  
Mulder was walking alongside Scully, and was always certain to help her and the baby whenever they came to difficult terrain. He had been thinking for a long time during their last day preparing for Yallus's flight. Mostly he thought about Scully, and the baby, and them together. He watched how carefully she guarded her baby...guarded it from almost everyone, including their friends. The only person she felt safe having Hope with was himself. (If she's this protective around our friends, I can't imagine what she would be like around our enemies...)  
  
He could tell that Scully was very worried. She was worried about what had happened to them when they had gone back to the FBI. She was worried about what Yallus had been telling them about the Argothians coming. She was worried about Krycek. And there was nothing that he could really do to comfort her, since he was just as anxious as she was.  
  
As they were walking, Mulder stole a glance over at Doggett, who was walking on their left. He was moving slowly and heavily, staring at the forest floor with sad eyes. This was partially because he had agreed to help carry the 50-something bottles of Vodka they had bought. But it was mostly because he had just been fired.  
  
After leaving Mulder's apartment, the group had gone back to the FBI, and Mulder, Scully, Skinner and Doggett had gone inside. Needless to say, everyone at the office had been more than a little shocked to see both Mulder and Scully returned and together. The four of them had instantly gone to the attorney general to explain where they had been, what they were doing and where they were going. Unfortunately, the attorney general and Kerch were not exactly as happy to see them as they figured they would be.  
  
Instead of being welcomed back, they were all told that none of them had a job at the FBI anymore. The attorney general briefly explained to them why they had been fired, but none of them really listened. They all knew that their "reasons" were nothing more that Kerch's self-generated crap to get rid of them. Skinner tried to protest against it, but the attorney general did not want to hear it. It was almost as if the FBI had been glad when Mulder and then Scully had disappeared, and hadn't been wanting them to come back.  
  
Mulder and Scully weren't nearly as upset about the news as most would have been. They knew they had bigger, more important matters to attend to than their jobs. Mulder joked that he doubted he remembered how to do his job anyway. Scully had been on maternity leave, so she didn't feel like she was going through a big change. Skinner was very upset, obviously, but he stuck by Mulder and Scully boldly. He had become fed up with Kerch and the FBI anyway...he had now been absorbed into the grand crusade.  
  
Doggett, however, was a different matter. He did not fully have the same contempt for the FBI that Skinner had, and her certainly did not have same nonchalance that Mulder and Scully had. He had liked his job and cared about it, even if the X-Files were not exactly where he had pictured himself ending up. Now that his job was gone, there was nothing left for him...nothing but this insane crusade, with its unbelievable characters involved, and he was willing and yet not willing to participate. He did not know what was going to happen to him now that he had no job and nothing to fall back on...he could only hope that Mulder and Scully and Skinner knew what they were doing.  
  
They had been walking through the woods with no exact knowledge of where they were going, because the ship was parked somewhere in a clearing, and they did not know how far away it was. It had been by pure luck that Mulder and Yallus had made it back to the road the first time, and again by luck and partial memorization that Yallus and the Lone Gunmen had found it again.  
  
The Lone Gunmen were about the only ones in the whole group that were not feeling at least a little downcast by all the recent events. They had not just lost their jobs, or were being faced with the heavy responsibilities of a special child. Instead, they had stumbled upon a wealth of information that could radically change everything about the planet - its technology, its economy, its government, its society, and its education. They were the only ones who seemed to realize what Yallus's appearance meant to the human race. Everything that the world believed to be true had suddenly been thrown way out of whack. The Lone Gunmen knew this, and the only way they could control their enthusiasm was to talk among themselves excitedly about the scientific and technological marvels they had experienced.  
  
[Hey...] Yallus spoke up suddenly, breaking into the complex silence that existed among the ten people. [I think we've found it.]  
  
Yallus was right. The ten of them emerged from the thick woods into a large clearing, where there seemed to exist a strange wall of rippling air. Everyone stopped before the energy wall as Yallus kept going towards it, and she turned around and addressed them.  
  
[Don't worry, you can walk through the cloak shield,] She said. [It doesn't have a selective entry drive like the doctoral transports do.]  
  
"Selective energy drive?" Frohike asked as they began to move forward again.  
  
[It can be installed into the larger ships' energy cloaks. It only allows certain things to pass through it, depending on what you program it to accept.]  
  
Slowly and unsuredly, the others followed Yallus through the energy cloak, feeling a quick jolt as they did. Scully hid the baby inside her jacket as best as she could when they went through, hoping to protect Hope from this unknown force. She was not sure if it worked or not, but Hope didn't seem to be too bothered.  
  
Once inside, they were all able to get a good look at the attack gunner. Mulder, Yallus and the Lone Gunmen had obviously seen it before, but the others had not. They were all struck speechless at the sleek, black alien fighter ship. Doggett especially was more than a little shocked. Looking at this interstellar vehicle in all its technological glory made him forget for awhile that he had been fired.  
  
Yallus was never one to waste any time. [Here, Mulder, grab some of that drinkable-chark-stuff and start filling up the left tank while I do the right. We should need about 27 bottles for each tank.]  
  
Mulder complied, and he left Scully's side to go help Yallus. Hope stared out at the alien ship and smiled, wanting to touch and explore this new things she had found. Scully just held on to Hope tightly, wishing that she had same confidence in this situation that her daughter had.  
  
"Do you know when you'll be coming back?" Mulder asked Yallus as he dumped his fourth bottle of Vodka down the chark tank tube.  
  
[I don't know,] Yallus sighed. [It depends on a lot of factors.]  
  
"What if the Argothians come back before you do?" Mulder's voice was anxious.  
  
[Look, I'm not the hero of this story. I'll do the best that I can. But it's going to be up to you to so something about the Argothian invasion, blue firebird.]  
  
Mulder was beginning to not like that name. But he said nothing and continued to empty his box of bottles.  
  
In just a little while, all 54 bottles of Vodka had been emptied into the tanks, and it was time for the ship to take off. The group was gathered around the entrance to the attack gunner, all of them feeling a strangeness they could not describe. It was not every day that you had to give your farewells to a bird-like alien about to take off in a spaceship.  
  
"You have the blood sample?" Mulder asked quickly as Yallus switched open the door.  
  
Yallus grinned. [I have it. I can bearly believe that I am so fortunate as to be carrying this...millions of creatures out there would kill to be where I am right now.]  
  
"Just please be back soon," Mulder said again.  
  
[I'll try.] She turned around to go inside the ship, and yelled back. [Make sure you're outside the cloak field now! Take care and be strong, firebirds!]  
  
The others did as she told and exited the circle within the energy shield. Just as they did, they heard a low humming from behind the shield as the attack gunner's engines started up. Light flashed from within, causing the group to shield their eyes. Then they all watched in silent amazement as the rippling energy rose into the air, and they could faintly see the image of the fighter ship behind it. The ship rose until it was higher than the treetops, and then shot off into the dusky sky.  
  
For a few minutes, no one spoke. They just stood there in the middle of the empty clearing, feeling the leaves rustle next to their feet. The forest was cool and calm, indifferent to the incredible events that had just taken place.  
  
Slowly, everyone turned their gaze to where Mulder and Scully and Hope were standing together. The three of them just looked back, seeming both courageous and frightened at the same time. For the first time, they really felt the weight of the world on their shoulders.  
  
"Well..." Doggett said with a sigh, "I guess it's all up to you now."  
  
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TO BE CONTINUED.......... %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


	3. The Firebirds III

THE X-FILES "The Firebirds III" By Sketchy Sunshine (OSTOCOM member) See profile for email and website  
  
Rating: PG-13...some violent stuff  
  
Classification: Post-season 8, Adventure, colonization, etc. :)  
  
Disclaimer: i6f Y##o/u caaaaaa---!n Rea::2d TH$iS, y/ou(( Mu==s77T R$!?EALLLLLL}{()Y w"'a[[nT 2to222 %k%no?!#w THA($$)t I Do}n{':'t Ow!n &the,,m! Ar--e"]n'998t Y#oUU e(tEned!!! (But Yallus, Trump, Slander, Havenamy, Tho and any other aliens, ships, and suchforth that you don't already know of are mine! ;))  
  
Summary: The final story of "The Firebirds" trilogy. Mulder, Scully and their child, along with the rest of the world, are plunged into the chaos that strikes when the Argothians invade...  
  
Author's Notes: This is it! The last part of this trilogy, woohoo!! Obviously, you have to read the first two to understand what's going on here. Also, a very special thanks to Riva for setting me right when I screw up, and Katie for beta-reading! Also thanks to Franzi for translating the story into German for me...you go, girl! ;) So enough jabberjaw...(weird cartoon...)  
  
On with the show!  
  
(P.S. Sorry about that disclaimer :))  
  
THE FIREBIRDS III  
  
PROLOGUE.......  
  
Yallus walked down the silver hallway slowly, soaking in all of the magnificent architecture that stretched over her. The hallway's floor, walls and ceiling were all made of a silver-like material...crunptium, perhaps. The hall was lined with silver statues of many different races...all of them extinct. That was the only monument they would ever get; a silver statue in this hallway commemorating their termination.  
  
At the end of the hallway were two large doors that opened up into the ULR conference room. She could faintly hear a long, loud argument going on within. There were two guards at the door. At first Yallus couldn't tell what they were, but as she got closer she saw that they were Mychinans. She figured she could get past them if she chose her words carefully.  
  
Above the door was an engraving of the seal of the Universal League of Races. It was circular, and showed a picture of a generic being holding two objects: the ice crystal, which symbolized the peace of the five sectors, and the ball of dark matter, which symbolized war. Around the edges of the seal were the three branches of the ULR: intelligence, strength and diversity. Written under the picture was the code of the ULR:  
  
"To acknowledge the intelligence, strength and diversity of the races of the five sectors, And to defend them against the tyranny of the powerful."  
  
Yallus ran those words over in her mind, considering their meaning. They certainly were a lot more weighty after all she had experienced.  
  
She made her way up to the guards, and stopped as one of them ordered her to "Halt!"  
  
"The 2,017th gathering of the representatives of the ULR is currently in session," The Mychinan barked in its electronic voice. "You are not authorized to enter. State your name, race, and your business here." The Mychinan raised its weapon to demonstrate that its business was to guard the meeting.  
  
Yallus looked down at the part-living, part-machine Mychinans. "My name is Yallus Tallo, and I am a Thybiran. I must, without any delay, be allowed into the meeting...I have vital information!"  
  
The Mychinan guard checked his memory tapes. "There is no Thybiran representative present in the meeting right now. Are you the Thybiran representative?"  
  
(They need to update their memory tapes, considering my race is now extinct...) Yallus thought with a sad sigh. She answered, "Yes."  
  
The Mychinans may have been ignorant, but they weren't stupid. "We see. Are you familiar with Reviran culture and their position as founders of this organization?"  
  
"I am."  
  
This was the opportunity the Mychinan needed to test Yallus. "Recite the firebird protection prayer, then."  
  
Yallus was at first afraid that she wouldn't remember the prayer from when she heard it long ago, but her adrenaline got her memory going and she spit it out.  
  
"Matter, space, energy, Find shelter under your wings. Protect us from the black disease, Protect those who serve you."  
  
The Mychinan guard nodded, clearly impressed, but he wasn't through with her yet. "Now recite it in the Shyppi language."  
  
"Materia, capacitas, acrimonia, Reperire ara subtus tibis alas. Adsum egos ab niger morbus, Adsum aliquis facerie servire tibi."  
  
Now Yallus could hardly believe she had just said that. She had thought that she had completely forgotten how to speak Shyppi, and what she could remember certainly wouldn't be an entire prayer. Yet apparently, she had just said it, and she thanked her lucky stars that those words had come out of her mouth.  
  
That was enough for the Mychinan. "You may enter, Yallus Tallo."  
  
Yallus nodded, and marched past them, her heart racing. She pushed aside the enormous doors, having to put all of her weight against them to move them at all. When she did, she walked straight into the conference room.  
  
She stopped in the middle of the conference room, staring with wide eyes at the place she was in. She had seen the ULR conference room before, but only when they broadcast certain meetings on the public televids and tesservids. The room was basically divided into three sections - one for each of the political parties. Each section had a large number of booths where representatives of each race sat. Each race had as many representatives as they had sexes. Most races had two sexes; male and female. Some were asexual and were only amale, while some were three sexes: remale, female and demale. Along with the booths there were large pools of water, which were used by races that wanted to participate in the gatherings but couldn't leave the water.  
  
At the front of the room was the stand-platform where the Revirans resided over the meeting. The Revirans were smooth, attractive beings that floated above the ground. They also often wore, long, flowing capes. The Revirans were the ones that had created the ULR in the first place, and the ones that ruled over its gatherings. Yallus couldn't help but look at the Revirans in an entirely different light...especially with what she knew now. The Revirans had also heard the firebird legend, but their reaction was much different than that of the Argothians...they worshipped the firebirds as powerful deities. On the Reviran homeworld, Shipwora, there were thousands of temples and monuments erected to the firebirds, and piles of doctrine were written for them, not to mention hundreds of prayers and offerings given to them every day. Before Yallus had had vague ideas of the beings the Revirans worshipped, but now that she had met them and known them, she couldn't help but smile. She knew that the Revirans' worship of the firebirds would be her best chance to get what she wanted.  
  
It was the rest of the ULR she would have trouble with. The ULR had been created in an effort to unite all of the intelligent races of the five sectors against the Argothians and their plans to control the universe. However, the organization ended up simply separating them more. The ULR divided itself into three political parties. The largest group, the dextri, consisted of races that thought they needed to fight and beat back the Argothian threat with military force right now. In contrast, the eastim believed that the races should submit to Argothian control for the time being, and then try and counterattack when the time was right. The final group, the ambix, did not necessarily agree with either the eastim or dextri, and generally had a variety of ideas that didn't help anything. These political parties were constantly fighting and creating tension between the races, and as a result prevented anything from getting done.  
  
Now Yallus was standing in the middle of this age-old conference room filled with its booths, banners and echoing silver, with the faces of almost 160 different races staring directly at her. There had been some sort of argument going on, but everyone had been shocked into complete silence at her entrance. Nothing like that had ever happened before.  
  
Yallus swallowed nervously.  
  
The high priestess of the Revirans, Havenamy Bluemind, broke the silence by standing up and addressing Yallus. "Who are you?! State your name and race immediately!" Her words echoed in the chamber, hitting the auto-translator embedded in the ceiling. The device worked similar to a translo, except that it could broadcast translations out in every races' language. Each booth also had a small buzzer that each representative used if they wanted to speak, but lately those buzzers were being used less and less often.  
  
Yallus cleared her throat and spoke loudly. "My name is Yallus Tallo, and I am Thybiran! I have come here to give you all important information..."  
  
The room began to buzz with conversation. The Eggbiran representative stood up and shouted to Yallus, "The Thybiran race is extinct! The Argothians completely destroyed them...we would know, my race neighbored the Thybiran homeworld."  
  
This caused even more tension. The Reviran, Havenamy, spoke again. "The Thybirans are extinct, they say! Are you not what you seem then? Are you a Postis-goman playing tricks on us...or a disguised Argothian?!"  
  
The conference room exploded into uproar. Everyone began shouting, and several representatives drew their weapons, ready to attack if they needed to.  
  
Yallus had to shout above the other voices, and slowly everyone quieted as they heard her saying something. "I am not a ghost, or a disguised Argothian! I am Yallus Tallo, the very last of the Thybiran race!" She reached into one of the pouches on her belt, and pulled out the syringe containing the blood she had received. "I have here proof of the existence of the legendary firebirds!"  
  
Now that started the biggest commotion of all. Every single representative began yelling at once, many of them standing up in their seats to broadcast their points even more.  
  
"You liar! Everyone knows the firebirds are just a legend!"  
  
"What on Pavell is that Yallus talking about..."  
  
"What is she holding? It could be a weapon..."  
  
"The firebirds don't exist!"  
  
"Well, they could, you never know..."  
  
"What kind of crazy fools are you Anhalans?! I thought everyone knew the firebirds are just tall tales to make you think crooked..."  
  
"This is just insane! What an unlikely story!"  
  
The Revirans punched on their buzzer, which sounded differently from all the others, and signaled the representatives to be quiet and listen. Another Reviran high priestess, Teebish, faced Yallus with wide eyes. "All of the representatives will not say a word unless they follow the proper procedure of speaking. And, I will not fail to remind you, this organization was founded on the belief that the firebirds existed." Teebish looked inquiringly at Yallus. "You...you say you have proof of their existence. What is this proof?"  
  
"I have been with them!" Yallus exclaimed proudly. "I have talked with them, listened to them, and have seen their homeworld. The blue firebird is a male named Fox Mulder, and his mate, the red firebird, is Dana Scully. They have a child, a daughter, named Hope! She is our hope as well as theirs, and this..." Yallus held the syringe high. "THIS is her blood. I have in my hands the magic blood of the Child of the Fire...our weapon against the Argothians!"  
  
The commotion started again, even louder than before. Some races were still arguing that the firebirds did not exist, while others were very excited about this new information and wanted to know more.  
  
"I'm telling you, the firebirds are nothing more than a legend!"  
  
"But look at what she has! She says she has the blood of the Child of the Fire!"  
  
"Whoever heard of blood being red?"  
  
"Test it! Test the blood with Argothian blood and we'll see how magic it is!"  
  
"Yes, test it, test it, test it!"  
  
The Reviran buzzer went off again, but its effect on the yelling was beginning to wear. After it was quiet again, Havenamy spoke. "You have told us the firebirds' names. What is their race, and their homeworld? How intelligent are they? What is their relation with other races they know of?"  
  
"The firebirds are of the Human race, and their homeworld is Earth. They are very intelligent, but are ignorant of other life in the universe."  
  
More talking broke out. "Human? What sort of race is that?!"  
  
"We have no record of their race or homeworld!"  
  
"Are they from an uncharted sector?"  
  
"Idiot Durpilans! Everyone knows there are only five sectors!"  
  
"You Chownans are the real idiots! It's common knowledge that there are more sectors out there...we just haven't been able to explore them because of the great ice wall."  
  
"They are NOT from an unknown sector!" Yallus was getting somewhat tired of these constant interruptions. "From what I can tell, they are somewhere on the edge of the 5th sector. But it does not matter what sector they are in, the point is that they exist! And we must send all of the military strength we have to their homeworld, for I fear the Argothians will come soon to destroy the Child of the Fire!"  
  
Before the talking could begin again, one of the representatives actually remembered to use their buzzer, and was therefore given the right to speak. The representative was an eastim, and was Thumpan. He cleared his throat and glared at all of the other races. "I am Storvbot Bost Vorlitt, chief executive of the Thumpan homeworld, Illfill. And I must say I am disgusted at your lack of intelligence! Any sensible race will realize that the firebirds are nothing more than a legend, a nice story to prevent weak creatures from losing all hope. You say they are real! What proof do you have of their existence? You say they are a race that we have never heard of before. Why not? If they live in the five sectors, we should have at least categorized them. And then you say you have the blood of the Child of the Fire...you could be holding Styggol-bush juice for all we know!" He snorted at Yallus. "So, I'm telling you all as intelligent beings...stop this foolishness. The firebirds will never be anything more than a story!"  
  
"If you don't believe me, then test this sample and find out!" Yallus challenged. "I saw the symbol upon their hands, how can I doubt what I have seen? Haven't the Miman or Bleebeean representatives told you about how one of their own was with me and the blue firebird? The four of us together escaped from an Argothian doctoral transport!"  
  
Everyone turned to the two races Yallus had mentioned. The Miman representative looked somewhat nervous, and then stood and spoke. "I am Impli, chancellor of the country Shavell on the Miman homeworld of Rodcuva. We have heard reports of one of our own, Slander, who claims to have seen living Thybirans and the blue firebird."  
  
The high priestess Havenamy nodded. "Do the Bleebeeans confirm this story as well?"  
  
The Bleebeean representative, Wra, flashed a message that said "Yes."  
  
At that moment, a loud and repeated buzzing came from one of the booths in the dextri. Everyone instantly knew who it was...the Chippans. They looked somewhat reptilian, with huge nostrils, thick tusks and large brows. They were unquestionably the rudest and crudest creatures in the five sectors...but they were also unquestionably the best pilots and sharpshooters the universe would ever see. As soon as he was done buzzing a million times, the representative stood and exclaimed, "Yeah, I wanna say...."  
  
"Don't forget the rules of speaking!" Teebish warned. "State your name, race and..."  
  
"But you already know who I am!" the Chippan complained. "I've only told you enough times to make an Urpsinan dizzy!"  
  
"Follow the procedure PLEASE."  
  
"Uugh..." The Chippan groaned, and then tried to make his introduction more exciting. "I am Trump, captain of the Chippan strikers of Felkar!" He exclaimed. "And I say we head on over to that Earth-planet-place, find us some Argothians and KICK SOME ARGOTHIAN ASS!!!"  
  
A few cheers went up from a few of the representatives in the dextri section, while all of the eastim grumbled and grunted their disapproval. Havenamy sighed wearily at Trump, and said, "Thank you for making your point so blunt, captain, but from now on will you please exercise some more manners when making a statement?"  
  
"Very well, yer honor," Trump answered with a sarcastic grin. "May we PLEASE head on over to that Earth-planet-place, find us some Argothians and kick some Argothian ass?"  
  
The other Chippan representative, a female named Moonshock, laughed uproariously at Trump's comeback and they exchanged gestures of triumph that only Chippans understood.  
  
Yallus had to grin at the two Chippans...although they were a little excessive, they were also smart enough not to fool around with political correctness and always came straight to the point. If there was one thing all Chippans loved to do, it was fight. Yallus figured they could probably be a valuable asset should things go the way she wanted them to.  
  
And Yallus's luck was turning for the better. Another dextri representative, the Cosolans, rang their buzzer for attention. The Cosolans were one of three races known as the Tri-Co race. The other two were the Colunans and Costelans. Although these three were categorized as three different races, they behaved as one tri-sexual race. They were all very intelligent and respected by members from all the political parties.  
  
The Cosolan gazed carefully out at the representatives in the conference room as soon it got their attention. "I am Travlang, representative of the demale Cosolans of the moon Solis. All of the representatives of the Tri-Co race have been listening and watching the events that have been taking place, and we have all come to the same conclusion.  
  
"It seems that we have credible evidence that suggests the firebirds exist. We have testimonies from three different races saying they have seen the blue firebird, and this creature who claims to have seen all three. She also has this blood sample, which we can test to see if it is the Child of the Fire's magic blood. If these tests prove Yallus Tallo is telling the truth, then the firebirds are living beings. And therefore, we must send all of our power with all our speed to the firebirds' homeworld to assist them in destroying the Argothians."  
  
A muttering circulated throughout the ranks of the representatives. The Tri-Co race was very respected, and for them to support Yallus's story meant there had to be something going on here. A representative of the eastim, the Hixan female, buzzed and stated her opinion. "I am Progli, queen of the Hixan females, and I propose we vote on the issue to determine what course of action should be taken."  
  
"Do the other political parties agree to this proposal?" Havenamy asked the representatives.  
  
A general signal of heads, hands and body parts came from the races, and they all said "yes."  
  
"Very well." Havenamy switched on the voting tesservid on her stand, which received signals from all the other booths. "All those in favor of testing the blood sample presented by Yallus Tallo; and, if proven to be what it was called, then send military assistance to the firebirds' people, indicate so on your voting panel. All those not in favor, also indicate so on your voting panel."  
  
The conference room was suddenly quiet, and Yallus found the silence to be almost frightening compared to the constant noise before. All of the representatives were carefully considering their options, and talked very quietly with their partners before voting. After a long and tense silence, Havenamy looked up from the voting tesservid where she watched the votes come in. "All of the votes have been placed. And the results are...72% of the representatives vote in favor of the proposal, and 28% vote against it. We shall test this sample given to us. If it is found to be the blood of the Child of the Fire, we shall..." Havenamy stopped. It was clear she was beginning to get choked up over what this could mean for her and her race. "We shall join the firebirds in combat against the Argothians."  
  
Talking went up again among the representatives, most of them happy with the decision and a few grumbling loudly about it. Yallus just stood there, in the middle of the commotion, and a huge smile spread across her face. She had done it...she had seen the firebirds living and breathing, and she had spread this information to those who needed it. She had gotten the help she wanted. (Mission accomplished, firebirds.)  
  
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
"Thank you, Stan. I'm Chuck Dreyson, and we're back with an update on the event that is rocking the world and everyone in it, the UFO Crisis. We will continue to have 24-hour nonstop coverage of the event, so don't expect to be returning to your "regularly scheduled program" anytime soon.  
  
"It has been exactly seven days since the sudden and unexpected appearance of over 50 of these black, circular, green- lighted alien craft." He pointed to the bold image behind him. "They all appeared at once, and are at this moment positioned somewhere in the lower atmosphere at various spots around the globe, generally around the more populated areas. There have been only one or two of these UFOs reported far out at sea.  
  
"So far, these alien ships have done little more than sit there. We have had no record of these beings or any of their machines coming down, except for a few incidents where small ball shaped objects have dropped from the ships to the ground. These, too, do not appear to be doing anything.  
  
"Governments all over the world have been fiercely debating over what to do about the alien craft. Although many nations, including our own, want to attack the ships with all of the military force we can muster, the general consensus has been that we should not make the first move. Analysts are suggesting that if we don't threaten them, perhaps they won't threaten us. Of course, most people here are hoping for the best but are expecting the worst.  
  
"And this just in...other global news, which may or may not be related to the alien UFOs, has just reached the press. In several cities, both large and small, an unknown sickness has suddenly sprouted up in men, women, children and adults alike. The symptoms include overheating, dizziness, fatigue, and severe abdominal pain. As of yet, no one has died from this disease, but doctors and health experts are unfortunately predicting that the unknown disease will soon prove to be lethal. Hospitals are rapidly filling up with infected patients, and even worse, doctors that have worked on them have been getting sick as well. As of yet, there is no known cure for this disease, and no knowledge of where it came from or how it is spread.  
  
"Needless to say, reaction to this epidemic and the appearance of the extraterrestrial craft has soared tensions between people of all classes and nationalities. A few groups of people do not believe they are aliens at all, but instead are weapons of mass destruction created by Russia or China or even ourselves. Leaders from every country on the globe promise that the ships are nowhere close to technology they might be hiding. Many people are eager to welcome the aliens, while others are eager to send them on their way. We have here sociologist Marcos Jimstall, who will offer his opinion of the effect of the aliens' appearance on human thought and perception..."  
  
"Anybody want some Krispy Kreme?"  
  
"Shut up, Frohike! We're trying to watch this!"  
  
"Suit yourself," He mumbled, and bit into a glazed donut.  
  
The TV rattled on endlessly, and almost all of the group was watching with somber intensity. Frohike had gone to the Krispy Kreme store for some food, but food was about the last thing on everyone's minds right now.  
  
It had been about three months since Mulder, Scully, Skinner and Doggett had lost their jobs, and Yallus had left Earth in the refueled sky attack gunner. Life had been nothing less than chaotic for them, as they had spent most of their time in the laboratory trying to make a synthetic copy of Hope's blood. That had been somewhat difficult, considering it had been next to impossible to find a biochemist who was willing to take on such a strange request. Finally, they had found a rebel biochemist named Joyce Flyer, who agreed to recreate Hope's blood synthetically. She did not necessarily believe all of their story, but the symbols on Mulder and Scully and Hope's hands and the translos Yallus had left were enough to intrigue her.  
  
Meanwhile, Mulder and Scully had somewhat been a pair of nervous wrecks, since they knew the Argothians could appear at any moment to try and kill their child. They were eager to get the copy of Hope's blood produced as quickly as possible, but production had been somewhat slower than expected.  
  
It was about one month ago that the entire group had decided to go into hiding. They obviously did not want to be conspicuous when the Argothians arrived, not to mention that the FBI was more than a little suspicious of their dealings with biotechnology. They had discovered a fairly-sized, unused bungalow and bomb shelter on the outskirts of some small Washington D.C. suburb, and had chosen this place for their hiding spot. They had the TV, radio and the ability to get food from the nearby store, but their quarters were fairly cramped. They did not want to take the time to move in beds for eight grown people, so they were reduced to sleeping bags on the concrete floor. Hope was the only lucky one, since she had a playpen to sleep in.  
  
And since the Argothians had appeared, things had gone from bad to worse. Mulder and Scully had absolutely refused to move from the underground bomb shelter. The Lone Gunmen had been the only ones adventurous enough to leave the bungalow complex at all. In the distance, they could see one of the Argothian ships hovering close to Washington D.C.  
  
Right now, all the group was centered on the TV, their only source to the outside world. Maggie was watching only with halfway fascination; she was more concerned with the safety of those she loved than these alien craft. Byers was also watching in silence except for the occasional words to Langly and Frohike, who were up and attending to other things. Skinner and Doggett were watching in a somewhat like-minded manner. They both now realized how it would have been pointless to stay in their former jobs, how this was so much bigger. Doggett especially was hit hard with the impact of this, and he had lately been spending time alone thinking to himself. Every once in awhile both Skinner and Doggett would glance over to Mulder, Scully and Hope.  
  
Mulder just stared at the TV blankly, looking as if he were watching with complete uninterest. In fact, a million thoughts were going through is head at once. He felt his insides shiver every time they showed the Argothian ships...he remembered all too well what went on inside those mysterious black hulls. He was afraid, so afraid that should he step outside for a minute he would be sucked back up into that hot, sticky green light, and then his hell would begin all over again...  
  
However, he had even more to worry about now than just himself. Although Scully and Hope were lucky enough to have avoided what he previously went through, they were probably in more danger than he was.  
  
Scully was watching Hope instead of the TV, and pretended to be ignoring what was going on. But she was listening to every word that was said, and was thinking over them carefully. She was holding Hope, who was now nine months old, and was learning more every day. Hope gazed at the pictured on the screen, pointed her tiny finger at them and sounded "Ah-ba-ba-ba!"  
  
"Yes Hope," Scully gave her daughter a small smile. "You want the alien ships to go bye-bye."  
  
Hope grinned at getting a reaction out of this noise she had made. She put her fist in her mouth and sounded "Ah-ba-ba-ba!" through her fingers.  
  
"No, you don't go bye-bye, Hope," Scully warned. "The alien ships do."  
  
"Ah-ba-ba-ba! Ah-ba-ba-ba!" Hope pointed to everything she could, eager to finally assign a name to the things that surrounded her.  
  
As the sociologist on the TV began to rattle on about things that weren't really important, Doggett turned down the volume and looked towards Mulder and Scully. "You do know what this means, don't you?"  
  
There was a long silence. "Yes," Mulder finally answered.  
  
"People are getting sick."  
  
"I thought they said no one had died yet," Byers butted in.  
  
"They will be soon," Mulder sighed. "This is just the first stage. After this the victim goes unconscious, and then..." He paused. "The product breaks out. Spreading it to whoever else is nearby."  
  
"I don't understand. I thought you said they were up there in their ships. How are they the 'product' of being sick, or whatever it is?" Doggett found it extremely odd that he was arguing about the forms of aliens like this. Then again, nothing made sense nowadays.  
  
"It's a mutated form of themselves," Mulder explained. "Not nearly as intelligent, but physically much more powerful. What the original Syndicate was led to believe was a form of enslavement. In fact, this is a method of annihilation."  
  
"You know what you'll have to do..." Skinner looked at them solemnly. "You have to contact the CDC. Tell them that you have the cure to this disease, and a weapon against the aliens."  
  
Scully looked at Hope, then looked at the floor, and swallowed. "If we do that, it'll expose who we are and what we can do," She said in an anxious voice.  
  
"That's going to have to happen eventually," Scully heard Mulder say in a tired voice. She could tell that he was trying to be strong and accepting of their position as "saviors of the world." But he was still just as worried as she was. They had already told the group how they thought Krycek was alive and how he could possibly be the dragon, and Maggie reaffirmed the story when she mentioned that they had not found a body in Scully's apartment. Although they had this knowledge, there was nothing they could do about it. Nothing except watch, and wait, and hope for the best. Right now, however, they had a more immediate threat to deal with.  
  
"We should leave now," Skinner said the words Mulder and Scully dreaded to hear. "If what we know is true, then people are going to start dying any time now. And once they do, everyone will know that the aliens are what's causing this disease, and the entire world will be in a panic."  
  
"The entire world already is in a panic," Doggett corrected. "This will just make it worse."  
  
Scully understood. She nodded heavily, and picked up Hope. "Ah-ba-ba-ba!" Hope stated proudly.  
  
"I'm glad you're confident about this," Scully sighed to her daughter. "We're going to go out now, and see some new people. These people want your help. But it's going to be very dangerous. Are you sure you want to go?"  
  
"Ah-ba-ba-ba! Ah-ba-ba-ba!" Hope bounced excitedly in Scully's arms.  
  
"We're going, then," Scully said decisively, and headed for the stairs. Everyone else just stood and stared, more than a little surprised at her sudden change in attitude. She turned around and gave them a quarter of a grin. "Hurry up, before I change my mind."  
  
Mulder, Skinner and Doggett followed her up the stairs, while the others chose to stay behind and hold the fort. Mulder smiled inwardly as he watched Scully tread courageously up the stairs with a nine-month-old baby in her arms. (That woman never fails to amaze me.)  
  
Somehow, when Mulder stepped outside the bungalow, he half- expected to be met with a desolate wasteland, the ruins of a city destroyed by fire and disease and black oil. But everything looked exactly the same as when they first went into hiding in the bungalow. All the buildings in the distance were still standing, and he even saw some cars driving down the street. The only thing that was different was the Argothian ship hanging over the city like some plague in the wind. Mulder and Scully tried hard not to look at it as they traveled from the bungalow to the Gunmen's van, their main source of transportation. They all climbed into the van, with Skinner driving, and headed off down the back road until they would meet up with the highway.  
  
"You'd better call Joyce," Skinner told Mulder. "Tell her she needs to meet us at the front of the CDC headquarters building with all the stuff she's got on the cure. We're going to be there in a few hours."  
  
Mulder pulled out his cell phone and started to make the call. As Mulder was talking to their hired biochemist, Scully turned towards Skinner. "The last we heard from her, the cure wasn't ready yet. There were still a few components that needed to added so that the cure would work for any person no matter what their blood type."  
  
"That may be true, but we're going to have to report our findings to the CDC right now if we're going to save any lives. They will have teams of scientists and chemists who will finish what we have started, and be able to mass-produce and administer the cure."  
  
Scully went back to Hope, satisfied with that answer. For a while, there was only the sound of Mulder talking on the phone to Joyce, and the hum of the tires on pavement. Then Doggett quickly reached forward and turned on the radio. It was as if he couldn't stand to not know what was going on, even for a minute or two.  
  
"...Reports are coming in by the minute as hospitals all over the country announce the first fatalities of the unknown epidemic. The first instance came from a patient waiting to be let into a hospital in Antonio, Texas. 43-year-old Drake Passist collapsed outside the hospital door, only to have a large, black, alien-like creature emerge from his abdomen. This creature then attacked all of the people standing nearby, killing eight and injuring 15 more. Policemen and soldiers were sent in to kill the alien creature, and four men were severely wounded before the creature was finally shot to death.  
  
"Hospitals all over the country have exploded into panic at this recent news. New patients are being refused admittance and infected doctors have been kicked out..."  
  
"Oh God!..." Scully said in a frightened voice. "It couldn't have happened that fast!"  
  
"...Some groups are demanding the government to force hospitals to allow patients inside. The government has not responded to this demand yet. As bizarre as this death is, doctors fear the hundreds of other citizens in the country with the same affliction will suffer a similar fate..."  
  
"I don't believe it!" Scully continued to try and drown out the radio with her desperate protests. "That's much faster than how it happened before! I thought the incubation period was 72 hours before it..."  
  
"Who knows what they did to speed things up," Skinner said with a shake of his head. "But you know that they're going to be moving things along faster now. Now that they know...who you are."  
  
Scully held Hope tighter at the reminder. Mulder finished his call, and just as he was about to speak, he noticed the stiff silence and the droning radio. "Something bad happened, didn't it?"  
  
"We don't have any time," Skinner informed him. "They're moving the invasion along too fast, and we can't keep up."  
  
Mulder said nothing. He saw Scully sitting quietly with Hope in her arms, and he drew them both closer. He felt Scully release a heavy sigh as he pressed her forehead into his shoulder. She was tired, and so was he. Tired of having to run and dodge and run again every second, tired of being responsible for everything that happened to this world, tired of being the heroes. All they wanted was a home and Hope and each other...but, as was usually the case, they were denied what they wanted.  
  
The van met with the highway and merged with the other cars, all of them looking with dread at the black disc in the sky.  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Doggett and Hope marched up the steps of the CDC headquarters building, looking up to where Joyce Flyer was waiting for them. She appeared very agitated, but they couldn't tell whether it was because she had been called out on such late notice or because she was worried about what was being said on the news. She motioned for them to come towards her faster, and they hurried up the steps as quickly as they could.  
  
She greeted them with a worried smile and large bag on her shoulder. "I brought everything we've done on it so far. It's basically ready, except for a few components here and there. But after I heard that report on the news, believe me, I doubled my speed," She said breathlessly.  
  
Mulder nodded to her, looking around the outside of the building they were in front ot. He had never been to the CDC headquarters before, although he had had many entanglements with their agents. "Do you think they're going to appreciate our charging in here claiming we have the answer to life, the universe and everything?" He said.  
  
"Most likely not, but that's the least of our worries," Joyce turned towards the door. "I know a secretary who works here, so I'll do most of the talking."  
  
They all followed her and stepped inside the building. In the headquarters there was total chaos. Phones were ringing off the hook, and doctors and agents were darting back and forth across the hallways spilling stacks of papers as they went. The CDC had been on top of the "mysterious epidemic" ever since it had appeared, but so far all of their attempts to find a cause or solution to the problem had been fruitless. More and more reports and pleads for immediate action were coming in by the minute.  
  
A doctor noticed Mulder's group of six as they entered the building. He groaned and started towards them, looking like a complete nervous wreck. He waved them away with an annoyed look. "This is not a hospital, people. You'll have to go elsewhere if you want someone to look at you. Trust me, we're working as fast as we can to try and fix this thing..."  
  
"None of us are sick," Joyce interrupted the doctor. "We're here because we have the cure to your 'mysterious epidemic'."  
  
The doctor was about to speak again, but stopped at the mention of the word "cure." His skepticism remained strong, however, as he looked over their ragged and weary company. "Who are you?" He asked slowly.  
  
"Most of us are former FBI," Skinner told him. "Three special agents and one assistant director. Joyce Flyer here is a biochemist."  
  
The doctor wondered what the FBI would know about a cure, and why, if they did know, they had not mentioned it before. "What is this 'cure' you say you have? Where did you get it?"  
  
"Our daughter," Scully presented Hope forward, "is immune to the disease. Immune because she can potentially kill the disease."  
  
This certainly surprised the doctor. He stared at Hope's curious face with bewilderment for a moment, and then cleared his throat. "Umm...I suggest that you talk to Dr. Florsten, who is in charge of research on this new disease. You will, of course, have to prove that your claims are right..."  
  
"As long as you have the substance that causes the sickness, we can," Mulder offered, eager to get going as quickly as possible. "Take us to this Dr. Florsten."  
  
The doctor nodded, and they followed him down the hall. Other doctors and agents would give them confused glanced as they passed by, but otherwise they were too busy to pay much attention to them. They would through a maze of tables, desks, halls, rooms and stairways until they finally stopped outside a large section with the sign "RESEARCH" above it. The doctor led them through the doors and went ahead to introduce them.  
  
Both Mulder and Scully felt more than just a little bit nervous doing this. They were not entirely sure that they could trust these people, but they knew they would have to do so anyway, because they didn't know of any quicker way that they could "spread the blood of the Child of the Fire."  
  
After a minute, the doctor they had first talked to brought up another man, whom they assumed to be Dr. Florsten. He looked over them with an air of confusion and contempt...all of them smelled slightly of old basement. "Who are you people? What are you talking about when you say you have a cure?"  
  
"Listen, do you have a sample of a black, oil-like substance that was found where one of the victims died?" Mulder ignored the doctor's question and instead launched into his own.  
  
The doctor silently expressed his astonishment at Mulder's request, and then finally answered, "I...I don't think so. If there has been anything like that, we haven't received a sample yet. We just got word of the first fatalities, and the only thing we can work with so far is infected blood."  
  
Mulder turned to Joyce and whispered to her, "Do you suppose it will work on infected blood as well as the virus itself?"  
  
"I think so. I'm not entirely sure, but I think so," She whispered back.  
  
Mulder then turned back to Dr. Florsten, who was not looking happy with the secretiveness of this proposal. "Give us an infected blood sample and a clean syringe and we'll show you a cure."  
  
The materials were brought in reluctantly, but promptly. They set up a strong microscope with a few drops of infected blood and presented the syringe to their group. "What is this for?" the doctor asked quizzically.  
  
Hope answered his question with a loud crying. She noticed the syringe, and remembered what happened every time one of those came near. Scully tried to soothe the wailing Hope, but with no success. "Hurry up and do it...she knows it's coming," Scully sighed.  
  
Joyce took the syringe and carefully pressed it into Hope's arm. She screamed louder as the needle poked her skin, but soon Joyce had a sufficient sample of blood and it was all over. Meanwhile, the doctors were watching with complete confusion.  
  
Joyce then presented the blood-filled syringe back to them. "Take this and put some of it on the infected blood. Tell us what you see." Doctor Florsten did as instructed, although his skepticism shone through his face brilliantly.  
  
There was a long silence as the doctor placed Hope's blood on the infected blood and watched whatever activity there was in the microscope. They all saw his eyes widen and his body tense slowly. After awhile, he looked up from the microscope, his jaw agape. His gaze was drawn directly to Hope, who was now sniffling and hugging her mother for comfort. "Who else has this ability?" The doctor finally asked.  
  
"No one else. She is the only one."  
  
"I've never seen anything like this before..." He continued, his voice filled with amazement. "Her blood can not only defend itself against the virus, but it attacks it as well. The infected blood is no longer infected."  
  
Mulder nodded. "That is your cure. That is what you need to give to every person in this world...because that's how far the disease will spread. If you don't give it to everyone, then millions of lives could be lost."  
  
The doctor was even more amazed at the extremity of this request. He worked his mouth a little before stating, "I'm not sure how you expect us to do what you're asking..."  
  
This was Joyce's cue. "For the part month we have been developing a synthetic copy of the baby's blood. Former Agents Mulder and Scully contacted me first and requested that I do it for them." She began to pull materials and compound samples out of her bag and place them on the table for display. "It's almost done, except for a few things that I can fill you in on. You'll need to get to work right away to produce lots of it."  
  
"'Produce lots of it' doesn't describe it adequately! You're asking us to make this synthetic material for every person on the earth...you're asking us to make nearly 7,000 liquid tons and then distribute it!"  
  
"Better get to work, then."  
  
The doctor was shaking his head slowly, not believing this was happening to him. At that moment, Mulder decided it was time to set out the situation clearly and bluntly. "Look, Dr. Florsten...this is not negotiable. This virus you have been hearing about is alien in origin, and it is always fatal. It is made to create lots of pain and to spread quickly. What we have shown you is the only way we can stop it. If you do not act fast, this thing will spread until there will be no one left to give the cure to. Now, I understand perfectly that you may have trouble communicating and working with other nations on giving this thing out, but if there's any time we're going to have to set our differences aside and work together, it's now.  
  
"You can make this cure any way you like, just so long as you do exactly what Joyce tells you. However, I do have some rules regarding how the cure will be distributed, and those rules revolve around the fact that EVERYONE will get the cure. No one will be denied it because of race, religion, age, sex, appearance, criminal record or amount of wealth. The same goes for waiting for the cure...no one will be made to "stand last in line" because of the things I mentioned before, either. Also, no one should have to pay to get the cure, either. If I find out that anyone is forcing people to pay, or there is bribing or cheating or any other type of dishonesty going on when this is being passed out..."  
  
The doctor gulped nervously. "You realize, Mr. Mulder, that there's not going to be preventing many violations of your rules with the scope of which you want to do this..."  
  
"Do your best," Mulder replied. "This is something this world has never encountered before. If we're ever going to get through it, we're going to have to stop being selfish humans." Even as Mulder was saying the words, he knew his wishes would never come completely true. Even an alien invasion couldn't stop humans from being humans.  
  
"We...we'll get started right away," Doctor Florsten glanced at the materials on the table. He sighed, and smiled hopefully at this strange company that had magically appeared before him. "I'm still not entirely sure who you guys are, but I have to say right now that you're the most miraculous things I've ever experienced."  
  
"Well, you're the first to think so," Doggett sighed.  
  
"Will you stay to help us develop this thing further? Perhaps be part of our announcement of our findings?"  
  
Mulder and Scully exchanged glances, and they could instantly tell what the other was thinking. "Joyce will stay and help you...I'm afraid we can't be around much longer."  
  
"You're leaving? But..."  
  
"We've given you what you need," Mulder assured him. "But I'm afraid it's up to you to do the hard part."  
  
With those parting words, Mulder, Scully, Hope, Skinner and Doggett left the CDC research center and its doctors with the cure that could save the world.  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
Hope was busy exploring the floor extensively, happily investigating any object or new space of ground that she came across. It seemed like she was always hovering above the ground, watching all the interesting sights, smells and sounds fly below her without a second thought. Now at last, she was free to crawl along the concrete floor, and she launched herself into a crawling spree with a giggle of delight.  
  
When suddenly, her exploration was cut short by a pair of familiar hands grasping her and lifting her from the ground. Hope whimpered in dismay and saw her mother staring down at her contentedly as she was firmly placed within her arms. Hope gazed down at the ground with sadness and began to cry.  
  
"Oh, Hope, what's the matter?" Scully felt her own spirits sink as she watched Hope burst into tears. "Don't cry, baby, it'll be alright..."  
  
Hope certainly didn't agree. She thumped her fist against Scully's chest and uttered a few sounds that were her only means of talking. Scully still didn't understand, and Hope wailed louder that she was not able to get her point across.  
  
"Mulder!" Scully yelled tiredly into the other room. "Could you get her a bottle? I think she's hungry."  
  
Mulder came in from the bomb shelter living room and saw Scully trying to calm Hope. "Didn't you just feed her an hour ago?"  
  
"Yes, but she won't stop crying, and her diaper's not dirty..."  
  
Mulder looked at Hope's face carefully, and for just a moment, he seemed to know what she was thinking. "She probably just wants to get down and crawl around. You know, not have somebody be holding her all the time."  
  
Scully frowned. This bomb shelter concrete floor was not exactly the cleanest thing in the world. "She'll get dirty, Mulder," Scully mumbled her excuse.  
  
"That's typically what kids do," Mulder gave her a smile. "Honestly, Scully. You never let go of that baby for even a minute. Don't your arms ever get tired from holding her all the time? If you keep this up she'll never learn to walk."  
  
Scully opened her mouth to speak, and then clapped it shut again. She realized exactly what she had been doing with Hope, and she swallowed down a lump of frustration and regret in her throat. She was so busy worrying about what might happen to the baby that she never let Hope discover anything for herself. Slowly, reluctantly, Scully placed Hope back on the floor. She immediately stopped crying and began to explore again, a smile lighting up her face.  
  
Scully felt her shoulders sloop, as if they were just realizing the exhaustion they were supposed to be experiencing. Mulder came up to Scully, and she felt him wrap his arms around her waist. "You need to settle down, just a little bit, you know," He said to her softly.  
  
Scully laughed somewhat. "Believe me, Mulder, it's more than a little difficult to 'settle down' in times like this..."  
  
"I think it's dangerous times that you need to 'settle down' the most, otherwise you can't think straight."  
  
"As if thinking straight is going to help us now..."  
  
Mulder thought for a moment. "I guess you're right about that."  
  
He turned so that he faced Scully, and she marveled at looking into his eyes. How long had it been since he returned? Four months? It had seemed to fly by so quickly, and a million different events had been packed into such a short amount of time. For some reason, she was still getting used to waking up every day and seeing Mulder's face; he had been gone for so long. But he had easily fallen back into her company, although she figured he should have a harder time than she did. She was not sure why she still sometimes felt that way...she was just glad that it was slowly wearing away as the days passed by.  
  
Mulder gave her a kiss on the forehead, and she accepted it gratefully. "You want to go back in and watch the news? I've been much happier with it lately."  
  
"That's all we ever do now is watch the news."  
  
"Hey, if you want to go up and know what's happening first- hand, suit yourself."  
  
She saw Mulder's point. She gave a kiss back to him and went to retrieve Hope. "Scully...about Hope..." Mulder warned her.  
  
"She can crawl around in the living room," Scully reassured him.  
  
Scully picked up Hope, and the three of them went back into the living room, where everyone was gathered around the all- powerful television. Scully set Hope down before the baby could begin complaining again.  
  
"...And here we are in the fourth day of what is now being called the 'ultimate vaccination' run." The news announcer motioned to the video scene behind him. "Since the announcement of the discovery of the cure for the alien virus, millions of booths have sprouted up all over the country to administer the drug to the public. CDC officials and health experts guarantee that the drug is 100% effective against the virus..."  
  
"I wish they would stop calling it a drug..." Scully frowned.  
  
"...not go to a doctor's office, and free of charge. Those producing and distributing the drug are even being penalized if they demand payment. All health officials strongly encourage, bordering on demand that all citizens report to a station immediately so that they can receive their vaccination. If you do not, chances are increased almost 95% that you will be infected with the alien virus that has been plaguing this planet.  
  
"Speaking of the rest of the world, almost all of the other world nations have begun producing and distributing the drug to their own citizens. Some third-world countries have been behind schedule and have not yet begun distributing the cure, and some countries have even refused to administer it, causing mass migrations of people seeking a place where they can receive vaccinations. Many problems have also broken out between warring ethnic groups such as Israel, India and South Africa, as some groups of people are being refused treatment.  
  
"However, it can now be seen that all of this hard work and cooperation is beginning to pay off. The number of people becoming infected, which had been quadrupling daily since the disease first appeared, has leveled off and is now even beginning to drop. Despite the first-come, first-serve rule that has been established at these stations, people that have already been infected with the virus are given first priority over those that are still healthy. So far, almost 800,00 people have lost their lives to the alien epidemic. However, with the new miracle cure being freely given to every citizen of this lowly planet, we can say that we as a global nation have hope once again."  
  
Doggett looked from the TV down to Hope, who was still exploring the ground. He gave the baby a relieved smile. "Well, Hope, you saved the day for us all! How do you feel?"  
  
Hope heard Doggett's voice and gave him a funny look. "Thhh-buh!" She answered, scrunching up her face.  
  
"Terrible?" Doggett continued to joke. "But all those people are so happy now because of you!"  
  
Hope didn't seem to care. She was obviously too young to understand, to realize the implications of her mere existence. Mulder watched her react to Doggett's reactions, and he wondered what she would be like when she was older. What if, somehow or other, the world eventually found out where their miracle cure had come from? How would Hope grow up with everyone telling her that she saved human life? would she bask in the glory of her accomplishments, or would she try and distance herself from her constant attention? Mulder hoped more than anything that when she was older, she would still have good character...he hoped that this immense responsibility would not ruin her kindness, or morality, or just the joy of being herself.  
  
Frohike gave Mulder and Scully his own grateful smile. "Looks like you guys actually did it. You saved the world with nothing but a baby."  
  
"I hate to ruin your happiness, Frohike, but it's nowhere near the end yet. If I know the Argothians like I wish I didn't, they're not going to stop at being confronted with a cure."  
  
Mulder's pessimistic attitude was not exactly what everybody wanted to hear. Doggett looked at Hope, and then at the floor. "So...what do we do about it?"  
  
"There is nothing we can do about it right now, except be glad that we have the upper hand and that we can take a breather. As long as we can hold them back with the cure, we have a good chance of winning."  
  
Of course, people wanted more than just "a good chance of winning." They wanted to be certain of victory. Since they had first delivered the cure to the CDC, the entire group had been hopeful that it would chase away the Argothians completely. But the ships continued to hang there threateningly, watching with scorn as their plans were slowly unraveled before them. It was yet to be seen exactly what kind of retaliation the Argothians had in mind for them.  
  
Maggie interrupted the conversation by calling out, "It's time for dinner!" The group stopped whatever they were doing and went up the stairs to the bungalow, which served as their dining room kitchen and some of their bedrooms. Scully picked up Hope along the way, hoping that she would actually eat her dinner this time. She was trying to get Hope to eat on a regular schedule, and Hope was slowly getting used to the idea, although obviously still having some complaints with it.  
  
For a long time, the only thing the group would have to eat was cold cereal in the morning and take-out pizza, chinese, Taco Bell and other fast food for lunch and dinner. Finally, Maggie had gotten completely sick of it and decided that she would fix meals for everybody if she had to spend all her time cooking. These meals became a significant improvement from their fast-food runs, and they actually enjoyed sitting down and eating as a break from their stressful existences. Mulder often joked about how they had all become a giant family, although the others were quick to remind him that he, Scully and Hope were the only real family there.  
  
Which had recently led Mulder to the realization that they were technically not a real family yet. He and Scully weren't married. Obviously, the current circumstances had them completely occupied and with no time to think about anything else, especially talks of marriage. Even when he had been living with Scully in the cabin in Vermont for a week they hadn't mentioned it. Mulder wondered if they were ever going to get around to it, should this nightmare of a life ever come to an end. Or if, perhaps, not being married made their relationship flow all the easier. Maybe it was this suspension inbetween one thing and another that was their marriage. Mulder was not entirely sure, and he certainly wasn't daring enough to ask Scully what she felt about it.  
  
As they all sat down around the dinner table, Maggie presented a large pot of homemade soup before them with a smile. "Help yourselves to it. I know we usually do something that involves more than one dish, but I thought it might be nice to do something different for a change."  
  
Nobody had any problems with that. the soup was passed around, and as bowls were filled, Maggie did her daily inspection of people's individual and collective moods. "I can't tell if all of you are smiling or frowning," Maggie inquired. "What has been happening?"  
  
"The news has been good so far," Skinner explained. "The cure has been working, and it looks the virus may have stopped spreading altogether."  
  
"It's just that Mulder here says the aliens aren't going to be bothered by the cure," Langly complained.  
  
"I didn't say they wouldn't be bothered! I said they wouldn't stop at being confronted with a cure. Trust me, what we've done to them do far has done a lot more than just "bother" them."  
  
"Well, as long as it's somehow hurting them, I think we should be happy about it," Maggie stated simply and sensibly.  
  
Nobody could argue with that point. For a while, there was no more conversation as the group was content to eat up Maggie's soup, and think carefully about all that had been going on. They all spent a lot more time thinking nowadays.  
  
When suddenly, the phone rang.  
  
Everyone looked up in surprise. The phone was rarely used except if somebody was out in town or they were talking to Joyce. Frohike swallowed his soup and said, "Wow...I never thought the telemarketers would find us here."  
  
Mulder decided to get in anyway. He recognized Joyce's voice instantly as she said, "Hello? Mulder?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm here."  
  
"Good. I was wondering if perhaps you and Scully and you lovely daughter would like to come out from your little hole and visit one of the vaccination stations. There's one close to where you are, I think on the corner of Chesire and Kensington..."  
  
"Hold on a minute!" Mulder interrupted her. "What do you mean, visit a vaccination station? What for?"  
  
"Just to see how things are going! Don't you want to see first hand what your child has done for everyone? I think it would be good for you to come and visit a station; you don't have to make a grand announcement about your presence. You can just come and watch on the sidelines."  
  
"I wasn't planning on making any grand announcements," Mulder said, more than a little surprised. "I didn't really want to go out at all..."  
  
"Now honestly, Mulder, I don't want to hear any more of that from you!" Joyce sounded like some scolding aunt. "I've hardly seen you or Scully since you decided to stay in that bungalow. You're going to meet me on the corner of Chesire and Kensington tomorrow at noon whether or not you like it. I insist you be there."  
  
"Ummm..." Mulder racked his brain for a suitable excuse as why not to go, but he couldn't think of one. "Okay. Sure, fine, whatever."  
  
He could practically hear Joyce smile triumphantly on the other end. "Good! I'll see you tomorrow." He heard the phone click as she hung up.  
  
"What was that about?" Scully asked as Mulder replaced the phone.  
  
"Apparently Joyce wants us to come visit a vaccination station tomorrow."  
  
Scully's eyebrows raised. "And what did you say?"  
  
"What could I say? I had to tell her yes."  
  
Scully's shoulders drooped slightly. "Mulder, she and you and I know that it's nowhere near safe for us to be out there where...they can find us..."  
  
"Come on, Scully, we might as well. The Argothians could just sit there for a very long time...who knows how long we may be forced to stay down here? I think it'll be okay to take at least one or two chances."  
  
Scully thought for a moment, looking carefully at Mulder and the others around the table. She sighed and made her decision. "Alright, we'll go...but Hope is going to stay here."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
The afternoon son beat down on the earth unmercifully, making Mulder very glad that they had just got there. He and Scully and Joyce were standing outside of what used to be a pet store, and what had now been transformed into a refreshment building where people could buy drinks and sandwiches. Mulder and Scully had just arrived, and were gazing slightly awestruck at the sight before them.  
  
"Well? What do you think?" Joyce inquired of them.  
  
Neither of them answered for a minute. The "booth" was a long line of about 20 tables, with three to four attendants sitting at each table. Behind the attendants were piles and piles of large boxes, each of them containing some 500-odd disposable syringes. It was easier to use disposable syringes rather than wash and reuse them every time. Each syringe contained a small amount of the cure. Along with these syringes were boxes and boxes of cotton balls and disinfectant.  
  
A large canopy had been spread over the tables, boxes and part of the line of people. The canopy was little more than a blue tarp that cracked in the wind and seemed to trap the heat underneath it as opposed to keep it out. Above the tarp was an enormous printed sign that read:  
  
VACCINATION STATION #27717 RECEIVE YOUR VACCINATIONS HERE NO FEE REQUIRED PLEASE STAND IN LINE ACCORDING TO YOUR BLOOD TYPE:  
  
And then beneath the large sign were some more, smaller signs that were each positioned above a group of tables. There was a sign for O, O-, A, B, and AB types. On the end, there was another sign that read, "IF YOU DO NOT KNOW YOUR BLOOD TYPE, COME TO THIS TABLE."  
  
But the most amazing spectacle was the gathering of people that had come to receive the cure. The line stretched back several blocks down the street, and an enormous mass of people surrounded the tables. People stood in long lines, holding fast food bags and pillows to sleep on while they waited. There were adults talking and reading magazines, old people constantly drinking water to keep themselves hydrated, restless kids and teenagers listening to music and playing Game Boy, and babies crying under the heat and stillness.  
  
The only problem with this arrangement was that families were often split up according to their blood type. Sometimes mothers would have to go through the line twice to get vaccinations for themselves and their children. In order to keep the line moving as quickly as possible, the procedure was sped up enormously. A few drops of disinfectant on the cotton ball, and few swabs on the arm, a fast jab with the needle, a band-aid stuck on, throw away the syringe, and the person could go. Drop, swab, jab, stick, you're done. Drop, swab, jab, stick, you're done. Drop, swab, jab, stick, you're done. To Mulder, it almost seemed like he was watching the holocaust going on. The huge lines of world-weary people, the breaking up of families and the ultra-fast injections...the ironic thing was that this was being done to save lives instead of destroy them.  
  
It took awhile for Mulder to realize that Joyce was still expecting an answer from them. "I, umm...it looks very efficient," He finally stuttered.  
  
"It's supposed to be. You have to be efficient when giving an injected cure to 7 billion people in as short a time as possible. Factories have gone into wartime production, only instead of producing guns and tanks were producing cotton balls, syringes and the cure. You can imagine these thousands of vats normally being used to make beer or soda instead being used to create a biosynthetic cure..."  
  
Mulder shook his head. "No, actually, I can't."  
  
"And just think, this all came from just a few drops of blood from your daughter. Nobody knows it, but it's your little Hope that's giving them security."  
  
Scully looked down at the ground, suddenly feeling unhappy. Mulder could tell what it was...she felt nervous and naked without Hope in her arms. This was the first time since they had been attacked that Scully had not had Hope with her for a long time. She certainly had not wanted to bring Hope out into the dangerous open, but at the same time did not want to leave her side. Persistent coaxing from the others that they would watch Hope so carefully it would annoy her to death finally persuaded Scully to give in. Hope had, of course, started crying when her parents left, but Scully had just tried to block out the sound and rush out the door.  
  
"Hey, have you guys had lunch yet?" Joyce suddenly interrupted Scully's sad mood. They both shook their heads no. "Well, I'll go get us some sandwiches here. Don't go anywhere, and I'll be right back." With that, the biochemist disappeared into the refreshment shop.  
  
Mulder and Scully were just slightly relieved that she was gone. Although she had been a tremendous help to them, she did have a tendency to talk too much. Mulder put his arm around Scully's shoulder, and they watched the vaccinations going on with mixed emotions.  
  
At that moment, a middle-aged man grumbling to himself and shuffling past them spotted them and gave them a look. "Hey, you!" The man called to them suddenly. "Aren't you going to stand in line?"  
  
Mulder stuttered before answering, startled at the sudden question. "We, uhhh...already got vaccinated."  
  
The man mumbled something under his breath and then snorted, "A whole lotta crap, if you ask me. They yell at us every five minutes on the TV and radio to go and get fixed so an alien won't kill us, so then I stand in line for who-knows-how-long and then they jab a needle in you and say you're fine. How is some needle jab supposed to stop a bunch of aliens?! My brother, he says he refuses to vaccinated...says it's all part of some plot or something. I'm starting to half-believe him."  
  
With that simple complaint, the man left them and walked off in a huff. Mulder glared after him and hissed under his breath, "Well, let's see how appreciative I'll be when your daughter saves the world!!"  
  
"Mulder..." Scully calmed him with her voice. "Don't get angry about that...you have to realize that we're probably the only ones that know where this comes from."  
  
"I know," Mulder sighed, "It just...makes me angry that not everyone is accepting this. I mean, you can't get a better deal than..."  
  
"Perhaps not," Scully gave Mulder a strange look. "But there are people that value their beliefs over their lives."  
  
That shut Mulder up. He knew that both he and Scully had been in that situation all too often. Heck, if they were in the situation these people were in right now, they would probably refuse vaccinations, too.  
  
Just then, Mulder thought he heard a strange sound reverberating through the sky and against the ground. It sounded almost like hundreds of swarms of bees droning, or electricity zooming through a generator. He wasn't quite sure, and he didn't know where it was coming from. "Hey, Scully, do you hear that?"  
  
"Hear what?"  
  
"I thought I heard this humming sound..."  
  
"Wait, I hear it now," Scully said suddenly as the hum became louder.  
  
Apparently, Mulder and Scully were not the only ones that had picked up this strange noise. People in the line were beginning to look up from what they were doing, as if curious and confused. The sound continued to grow louder and louder, now operating on several different pitches at once and seeming to come from a certain direction.....  
  
VVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMM!!!!!!  
  
The humming roar tore the sky in two as some mass of black objects flew by, faster than anything they had ever seen before. As the black objects zoomed over the vaccination station, the tarp and one of the sections of tables suddenly burst into a ball of green flames.  
  
Chaos ripped itself from the throats of the masses. People began running, shrieking, crying out for friends and family as they struggled to escape the fire and the dark roaring in the sky. They ran every way they could, trampling others in their way, their frightened screams nearly drowning out the humming roar. Those who were supposed to calm and organize the masses joined in the panic and thought only of escaping whatever had attacked them.  
  
"What was THAT?!" Scully cried out suddenly, grabbing onto Mulder for security.  
  
Mulder did not answer her. He just watched as the roaring objects turned around, and went again to fly over the vaccination station. As they turned, Mulder could instantly tell what they were...five Argothian sky attack gunners.  
  
Mulder felt himself suddenly become nauseated, and he had to breathe in quickly and deeply to prevent himself from becoming sick. He remembered flying in one of those...and he also remembered the power that had been released with he had used their cannons. And now that power was being released upon them!  
  
"SCULLY, RUN!!!" Mulder roared, pushing Scully and himself away from the tables and the screaming masses. The two launched themselves into a desperate sprint, fear tethering their pounding hearts together. The sky attack gunners came for another pass, bolts of light shooting left and right at the unarmed citizens below. The bolts burnt the tables to black splinters, and incinerated the boxes full of the cure. People running away suddenly would disappear in a flash of light and flames, and all that would be left was a burnt crater in the street. The Argothians had finally discovered the source of their problems, and were now fighting back.  
  
Mulder and Scully instantly became lost in the chaos. Mulder held onto Scully's wrist so tightly she was certain he could tear it off, but she didn't care as long as they stayed together. They did not scream or shout like everyone else, but the looks that passed between their eyes loudly proclaimed that they were far more frightened than all of the masses put together. Mulder was just trying to decide if they should hide in a building or keep running, when another bolt struck the laundromat next to them, setting the building ablaze. He decided it was better to be a moving target.  
  
The sky attack gunners, having completely finished off the booth and the station's supply of the cure, began to swoop low and pick off the screaming people. Mulder and Scully did not turn around to watch, but they knew what was happening...they knew that no amount of their daughter's blood could save people from the destruction of sheer firepower.  
  
But they weren't nearly as concerned for others as they were concerned for their own lives right now. Scully yet out a startled scream as a blast came from right behind them, its roar heightened by the wails of those caught in the fire. Then the sky attack gunner sailed right over their heads, revealing its black, metallic hull to them. Another blast, and those right in front of them were hit hard. Mulder and Scully were thrown backwards as the green fire hit the ground and the screams hissed into snapping fire. Scully felt her body shiver despite the heat; shiver with the terrible massacre taking place all around her. Mulder gripped her shoulders as if he were drowning and pulled her out of the main mass of people. Burnt craters were appearing on all sides, and were beginning to pepper nearby buildings. There was nowhere for anyone to run or hide as the attack gunners spread out, continuing their rampage and destruction.  
  
"COME ON, LET'S GET BACK TO THE STATION!" Mulder cried over the chaos to Scully. "NOBODY WILL BE THERE!"  
  
Scully did not really hear him, but when Mulder turned about-face and went against the crowd, she followed him anyway. People were pushing them on all sides, knocking their bodies left and right as if they were caught in whitewater rapids. For a moment, they couldn't see anything except people's frightened faces, and it took all the strength they had just to hold on to each other. Finally, however, they broke free of the thick herd of bodies and scrambled into the ruined courtyard where the vaccination station had been just moments ago.  
  
Scully let out a half-sob as they finally got a good look at what had happened. The entire station had been reduced to a pile of splinters and crisp plastic, and the horrid stench of incinerated bodies poisoned the air. The ground was black and rocky, torn up by the intense laser blasts. Mulder and Scully stood in the middle of the wreckage, covered over with dirt and smoke and debris and blood. Mulder held up a stumbling Scully as they watched the fighter ships chase away the people like a hunter shooting away at a flock of baby pheasants.  
  
"M-Mulder...wha...how did they..." Scully cried, gasping for breath and coughing.  
  
"The cure was hurting them...so they started doing the next best thing," Mulder said through his teeth, coldly. "Only we can't fight this."  
  
"We have to get out of here..." Scully stumbled backwards over some charred skeleton. "We have to tell the others..."  
  
"If they haven't already found out..." Mulder gulped. He felt a mixture of terror and hatred brewing inside him...terrified because of the familiarity of this, of the immense power the Argothians had had to cause terrible pain. He had tried so hard to forget it, yet it had come back to him tenfold. With this fear came his heated anger, anger that they had come back and that there were so many other innocents who were suffering now. His desire to fight arose in him, and the desire to do to them what they had done to him and Scully. His anger and fiery temper boiled up from his stomach and out with his voice, "YOU DAMN MURDERERS! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!!!"  
  
It seemed as if one of the attack gunners heard his challenge. One of the fighter ships suddenly stopped chasing the masses and turned around to face them. The pilot caught sight of the two lonely figures in the middle of the wreckage, and raced towards them, cannons loaded.  
  
"Mulder...MULDER RUN!!" Scully exclaimed aloud, her eyes wide and her limbs taunt. They both turned around and began to sprint over the black rubble, bodies shuddering with adrenaline.  
  
The sounds of laser blasts began to echo all around them, hitting them from behind, then left, then right, getting closer all the time. They could practically feel the ship's engine roaring in their hair, the cannons locking in on their forms. Another blast, and the ground disappeared under their feat as they ran, the flames licking their shoes.  
  
Then Mulder tripped on a corpse and tumbled onto his back in the dirt.  
  
Scully seemed to automatically follow him down, and landed next to him, clutching at his chest. For a split second, both of them looked up after they fell and saw the Argothian sky attack gunner looking straight at them. They could see the energy building up inside the cannons, about to hit them point blank. Mulder could just imagine the look on the Argothian pilot's face as he blasted away these two lower life forms...he could almost imagine his guard at the controls, happy to finally get revenge for the injuries he had suffered. Mulder just held Scully to him, feeling the cry of terror trying to push itself out of her chest, and prayed that Hope could forgive them for leaving her so soon...  
  
They both heard the sound of the bolts leaving the cannons, and Mulder let out a cry as something sharp and hot scratched at his chest. Hot blood tricked down his skin as he felt something else blast his hair back. The he felt heat searing his back and neck, and he wondered how he could still fell pain if he was dead...  
  
"MULDER!!"  
  
Scully's voice brought his eyes open in an instant. She was still there, still in one piece, dirty and scarred as she was. But she was there, and so was he, and Mulder realized that the only thing that had hurt him was the piece of metal that had struck his chest. For a moment, he thought that both he and Scully were ghosts, and that any moment they would discover their charred remains in a crater...  
  
When Scully yanked Mulder around suddenly. Mulder let out something between a gasp of surprise and a whoop when he saw what Scully had seen...the Argothian sky attack gunner had crashed into the ground behind them, and they could barely see its metallic frame crumpling away in the midst of howling flames.  
  
"Wha...happ...." Mulder tried to stutter, completely shocked at the sight. A sound like a jet plane a few inches above their heads caused them to look up just in time to see something zoom past them.  
  
They looked up in amazement at the scene before them. Zipping all across the sky were small fighter ships. They weren't Argothian sky attack gunners, but they weren't fighter jets from this planet, either. They were ships Mulder had never seen before, with two small, curved wings, a long nose, two engines and practically no body. They were not all a uniform color, but were instead painted different shades and were even decorated somewhat. There were about 20 of these alien ships surrounding the skies...and they were shooting at the Argothian sky attack gunners.  
  
It took awhile for both Mulder and Scully to realize what was happening, but once they did they both felt a cool streak of surprise and joy brush smiles onto their faces. They stood, and staggered away from the crashed attack gunner, watching the dogfight above them. The new fighters were practically flying circles around the attack gunners, using flying maneuvers that Mulder didn't think were physically possible. The Argothians were trying in vain to shoot back at the ships attacking them, but the other ships were too quick and agile to be caught. One by one, all of the sky attack gunners were shot out of the sky and sent to earth in a blaze of smoke. The people did not bother to notice this new development in their favor, and they continued to run away.  
  
Mulder and Scully exchanged looks of happy confusion. They had no idea who exactly was flying these strange ships, but they were excited just because they were alive and that the the attack gunners had been shot down. Mulder pulled himself closer to Scully and put his hand on her face, as if checking to make sure she was as alive as he thought she was. She just grinned back at him.  
  
The fighter ships, having destroyed all of the Argothian pack, began to regroup and circled low where Mulder and Scully were standing, as if performing multiple victory laps. Through the front shields of the ships, Mulder could faintly see the pilots within...they certainly weren't human or Argothian. They were moving too fast for him to really get a good look at them. But as one ship passed by, the pilot waved to them, and Mulder instantly recognized the creature inside. He broke into an overjoyed smile and held Scully to him with excitement.  
  
[Ha-haaaaa!] Yallus Tallo exclaimed to Mulder and Scully on the ground outside. [I'm back, firebirds, I'm back!!]  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-  
  
Quickly, and in a rather unorganized matter, the 20- something alien ships landed in the black courtyard, steam and smoke hissing from their exhausts as their engines shut off. They landed all around Mulder and Scully, humming with victorious power, displaying their designs proudly. After they had all landed, there was a moment of silence, during which Mulder and Scully looked around nervously, not sure of what was going to happen next.  
  
Then there was a little pop-hiss as one of the front shields of the ships opened up. As soon as the door was opened, a burly, reptilian-like creature leaped out with excitement. The thing had greenish flesh, like it was sick, but it certainly seemed to have a lot of energy. It whooped loudly in a sharp, gruff tongue, and began chattering excitedly to no one in particular. Mulder and Scully stared at it with wide eyes, trying to figure out if they should be running away in terror or joining in its victory dance.  
  
Scully whispered to Mulder, "Do you know who that thing is?"  
  
"I don't even know what that thing is," Mulder shook his head.  
  
The reptile-creature finally spotted them, and cried out, CHURRBIM TRIGIM GIF GIF ROBISI CHUM MARF!  
  
Then, all of the shields of the fighters opened, and more of the same type of creature emerged from their cockpits. They varied in skin color, height, weight, hair color and clothing, but other than that they looked fairly similar. They talked and whooped back and forth to each other in their own language, and kept exchanging loud and obnoxious laughs.  
  
Now even Mulder was beginning to get a little bit nervous, and he hoped that he and Scully were as safe as he assumed they would be. The reptile-creatures were beginning to surround them, staring at the two humans curiously and exchanging comments and snickers. Mulder couldn't help but noticing that each one was carrying at least two weapons on them, usually more. They first creature they had seen, whom they assumed was the leader, gave a gruff shout and suddenly drew his pistol-like weapon.  
  
"Uhhhh...Mulder...." Scully said quietly, looking at Mulder for answers.  
  
KEEEIRA-ARKRA-KI-KI-KI! KRIARK-EEEAR-EEIR-KRI-KRA-IRIKIA!  
  
Mulder felt his entire body relax as he saw a tall, red- feathered figure making her way through the shorter reptiles. Yallus came up to them with a huge grin on her face, screeching her gratitude that she had finally found them again.  
  
Only neither of them could understand her. Yallus just kept talking to them as if they were old friends who didn't need to greet each other, while Mulder just stared blankly at her. After a while, Yallus finally realized that they were not responding to what she was saying, so she stopped.  
  
Mulder pointed to his ear to demonstrate that his translo was missing. Yallus understood, and dug around inside one of her pouches. She pulled out another handful of translos...apparently she had restocked while she had been away. Mulder and Scully both took one, and it took awhile for Scully to remember how to put hers in, but Mulder helped her.  
  
The moment both of them had their translos in, Yallus launched into her excited chattering again. [Firebirds! I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see you again...so much has happened to me! And it seems a lot has happened to you, too...]  
  
"You could say that..." Mulder half-laughed, casting a glance at the black and burnt street around them. "I think it's safe to say that you saved our lives."  
  
[Naw, we weren't savin' any lives...we were puttin' them out of their misery!] The head reptilian creature yelled excitedly. [Any pilots who flies as horribly as those scumtails do want to die!]  
  
The other reptiles laughed at the joke, and began adding in comments of their own. [Argothians fly so horrible, they make Sluboans look like good pilots!]  
  
[They fly so horrible they could think they were doing loops and still be on the ground!]  
  
[They fly so horrible their mommas punish them for it!]  
  
[Hey, how many Argothians does it take to fly a ship? Two...one to get the ship off the ground and the other to crash it!]  
  
Amidst the laughter and snorting, Mulder pulled Yallus aside and said, "Could you please explain to me what exactly these things are what they are doing here?!"  
  
Yallus grinned at Mulder. [I'm sorry I didn't introduce them earlier...I'm afraid we're all caught up in the excitement of things. You see, this is the help I promised you...this is the Chippan striker fleet. Chippans are a little rough, and they may enjoy killing things a little too much, but they're the best pilots and sharpshooters in the five sectors. They can fly and fight like you'd never believe...and best of all, they hate Argothians.]  
  
[Damn straight!] The head Chippan cussed loudly, straightening his vest with a half-smile. [Scum of the universe, I say. They violate The Code, and have fun doin' it, too. I say any creature that wants to take away the right to breathe and the right to fly ought to have those rights taken from himself.]  
  
[Firebirds...] Yallus waved her hand at the Chippan. [Meet Trump, Captain of the Chippan strikers.]  
  
Trump just nodded, not exactly sure what gesture of greeting was appropriate for these creatures. [And who, or what, are these things you had us save? All the other ones ran away.]  
  
Before Mulder could explain, Yallus quickly exclaimed, [They're the firebirds! The ones who are going to save the universe!]  
  
(It certainly couldn't have been put more bluntly...) Mulder thought, biting his lip.  
  
One of the Chippans did a quick headcount. [I thought there were three.]  
  
For the first time, Yallus realized exactly who was missing from the trio. [Where is Hope?] She cried, suddenly becoming worried.  
  
"She's...back home with the others," Scully said nervously. She didn't like being reminded about Hope not being in her arms, but now she was more than eternally thankful that she had not brought the baby here.  
  
[So you're the firebirds, huh? You're the ones this entire universe has been in a hissy fit over?] Trump said, eyeing them carefully. He grinned, and laughed, [Ha-haw, those Revirans are gonna get a kick outta you, they are! I can't wait to see the looks on their faces!]  
  
"Waitaminute..." Mulder said with a lump in his throat. "Revirans? You mean there are more aliens...err, no, I mean, other races coming, too?"  
  
[Mulder, what makes you think that this is the only bunch of help that decided to show up? You may not know it, but there are thousands of packs of fighter ships heading out all over your homeworld right now. When I said I would get help, I meant I would get you help. And it seems like you needed it, too...some other packs of fighters were calling me about how your own fighters were battling the Argothians and were losing miserably. Most of the fighters that have come here are Chippans, but there are many other races coming, too.]  
  
Mulder and Scully looked at each other, trying to soak in so much information at once. "So what...the Revirans are more fighters?" Mulder said questioningly.  
  
At this comment, all the Chippans began laughing uproariously, causing Mulder and Scully to shy away from them. Through snorts of laughter, Trump exclaimed, [The Revirans? Fighters? Why, if any one of them so much as used a gun it would be news to the universe! They hate fighting...which of course means they don't like us...but they do know how to commit themselves to something, I can tell you that!]  
  
At that moment, a strange sound came from somewhere over their heads. All of them looked up, and saw yet another ship hovering in the air. This one looked too big and slow to be a fighter, and it wasn't an Argothian ship, either. It was shaped like a half-circle, almost like an orange slice, and was a gray- blue color. Lights flashed from its rim as the ship began to slowly descend towards earth.  
  
[Oh,] Yallus said, sounding pleased. [That would be them now.]  
  
"They're coming here right now?!" Mulder yelped. "Yallus...don't you think you should be taking a few more precautions in inviting every race in the universe to my planet for some big party?!"  
  
Yallus gave Mulder a look. [Really, Mulder, I'm surprised at you! I went to a lot of trouble to get all this here and to help you. It's not as if other races besides your own is a big mystery to your people anymore. I thought you would be happy to see me.]  
  
"I am happy to see you!" Mulder assured the Thybiran. "We both can't tell you how happy we are to see you! It's just that all this a very big jump from where we were just a little while ago."  
  
[Well, better get used to the idea, because it's going to get bigger. We have a lot to do, and we have to do it fast.]  
  
"We've already started it," Scully told them, deciding that she wanted to say something. "We've been passing out the cure for the last four days or so."  
  
[As is evidenced by the Argothians attacking you. What you now have to do is keep giving out the blood of the Child of the Fire, and in the meanwhile fight off the firepower the Argothians have. The more creatures become immune to the Argothian life- force, the more they will rely on their firepower. And that's where our help comes in.]  
  
As Yallus finished speaking, the slice-shaped ship finally touched down in the open spot in the courtyard. The Chippans were not exactly the best at landing their strikers. and took up more room than they should have. Mulder, Scully, Yallus and the Chippan army watched quietly as the ship hissed and then killed its engine.  
  
The side door of the ship opened slowly, and Yallus began to walk towards it to greet the beings inside. Mulder and Scully just stood there, wondering what sort of creatures were coming now...  
  
When suddenly a streak of light zoomed out of the open door, heading straight for Mulder and Scully. Scully let out a cry as Mulder pulled her down reflexively, barely giving room for the light to pass over their heads. When Mulder finally realized what was happening, he broke into an enormous grin.  
  
"Tho!" He cried as the little light-ball whizzed around his head. "Tho, I never thought I'd see you again!"  
  
Tho stopped in front of Mulder, and flashed a message in bright purple. Whatever she said, Mulder could tell that she was very happy while saying it.  
  
[Blue firebird! You're here!] Another voice called suddenly. Mulder recognized that voice as well, and smiled again as a rodent-like creature stepped out of the ship.  
  
"Slander!" Mulder exclaimed as the Miman came towards him, grinning from ears to ears. "What are all of you doing here?!"  
  
In just a moment, Mulder found himself surrounded by the three friends he had first met when he had escaped from the Argothian ship. Scully felt a little excluded from this reunion, but she understood that this was something that was important to Mulder.  
  
[When we heard about the ULR gathering to to fight the Argothians on your homeworld, and that Yallus was part of the team going there, we knew we just had to come and see you!] Slander answered Mulder's question. [You wouldn't believe how big of a deal it was...there were announcements sent out to all the armies of the ULR homeworlds, and there was a big mass of volunteers who signed up to come help fight...and they're all here now!]  
  
"Well, it certainly makes us feel good to know that there are lots of people out there who support us..." Mulder said, slightly amazed.  
  
Just then, Tho began trying to talk to Scully, and began flashing messages in her face. Scully blinked and moved away, not sure what this thing was trying to do to her...  
  
Slander caught sight of Tho's flashing, and therefore caught sight of Scully. He blinked in surprise and muttered an apology to himself that he had not noticed her before. [Who are you?] He inquired.  
  
[She's the red firebird, the mother of the Child of the Fire!] Yallus leaped in before Scully could speak. Seeing Scully's slightly irritated look, Yallus quickly added, [And her name is Dana Scully.]  
  
[A pleasure to meet you,] Slander said in his typical Miman politeness. [I've heard a lot about you.]  
  
Scully blushed just slightly, and Mulder gave her a lopsided grin. Slander cast a look at the two of them, and then darted away, saying, [I should go get the Revirans now, They've been going nuts ever since Yallus showed up at that ULR meeting and said that the firebirds were real.]  
  
Before Mulder or Scully could protest, Slander darted back to the gray half-circle ship. There were a few moments of no movement, during which Mulder, Scully, Yallus and Tho watched the ship expectantly, and the Chippans shuffled around restlessly. They didn't like standing still for too long.  
  
Finally, Slander exited the ship again, with some new kind of race following him outside. They were all a humanoid shape, about the same size as humans too, except they had various shades of blue skin and they hovered over the ground. They had very small noses and mouths, and hands that were somewhat webbed. They also had different colors of smooth, almost metallic hair, and they wore nothing but long, flowing, colorful capes. Mulder and Scully watched carefully as these entities nervously ventured out of their ship and into this brave new world. They seemed to be just slightly afraid of everything, and at the same time possessing great potential.  
  
Nobody said anything as the Revirans came up to the other group. Being surrounded by multiple alien races was not exactly what Mulder or Scully found comfortable, and they exchanged undetermined glances.  
  
Yallus suddenly appeared beside them, and gave them an encouraging look. [Show them that you are the firebirds.]  
  
Mulder understood what she meant. He and Scully reached their hands towards each other, and touched palms. Instantly, the firebird symbol on their hands flared up to its original brilliance. It happened every time they touched hands, and they had become so used to it happening that they hardly noticed the symbols anymore. Now, however, they were both reminded of the significance of the mark they bore. Nervously, they both showed their symbols to the Revirans, one in red and the other in blue.  
  
And the Revirans reacted to this like Mulder and Scully would never have believed. A large cry went up from the group of them, although they weren't sure if it was a cry of joy, fear, embarrassment, or all of them at once. Then all of them bowed low to Mulder and Scully, facing the ground. The Reviran in the front, whom Mulder assumed to be the leader, cried out, [Please forgive us, lords, for not realizing your presence immediately!]  
  
A general muttering came from the group, as if they were all quietly praying to themselves. Mulder and Scully just stared at the Revirans, and then at each other. Yallus came in closer to Mulder and Scully, and whispered, [You have to understand something about the Revirans...they've heard the firebird legend, too, only they regard it as a world religion, and they worship you. There are piles of doctrine on the legend, and hundreds of temples on their homeworld...it's amazing, really. They're the ones that started the ULR, and they did so because of you.] Mulder just gave Yallus an astonished look.  
  
The leader spoke again, sounding as if she were near tears. [In our haste to organize ourselves and arrive at your homeworld, we have neglected to bring you a suitable offering! We are shamed! We beg your forgiveness, O saviors of allkind!]  
  
Mulder felt he should say something back, but he just stuttered uncertaingly. (What do you say when you have a whole race of aliens worshipping you?!) he thought to himself. He stole a glance at Scully and could tell that she was even more stressed about this situation than he was. Somehow, Mulder didn't want to exactly explain to these creatures that he was just a normal, mortal human being that most people didn't like anyway, and not some amazing deity. He didn't want to crush their faith when they had obviously put so much time and effort into it as to include bowing and offerings. Just he and Scully's existence was the main basis of religion for these creatures. At the same time, however, Mulder couldn't help but feel a sense of empowerment...it was something of an ego-boost to know that there was an entire race that worshipped you. He wished that he could give some sort of supernatural presentation to them, but he figured the symbol on his hand was the best he could do.  
  
A look from Yallus brought him back to reality, and he saw that the Revirans were still bowed before them. Mulder wasn't sure whether they were expecting an answer or not, so he just said, "Ummm...don't worry about it."  
  
[We are eternally thankful for your forgiveness, great blue firebird! We know we do not deserve it!]  
  
Then there was silence as the Revirans remained in a bowing position. From behind, the Chippans began to comment and snicker to each other. Mulder could tell that they were at least trying to be respectful, otherwise they would have all burst out laughing.  
  
"You can stand up, you know," Mulder told the Revirans.  
  
[You would permit us to look upon your faces?]  
  
"Sure, why not."  
  
Slowly, hesitantly, the Revirans brought themselves up from the ground. They still weren't sure if they were worthy enough to "look upon their faces," and they were halfway looking at them and halfway looking at the ground. "What are some of your names?" Scully finally ventured to say.  
  
The leader swallowed before answering and drew in several more Revirans next to her. [I am Havenamy, high priestess of the nation of Ideelos. These are all my friends and peers, Teebish, Annehais, Dierin, Audomti, Leharsin, and Shelmar. They are also priestesses, and are all very learned in doctrine and worship. We pray that you approve of the time we have spent dedicated to you...]  
  
Mulder gave Scully a half-smile, as if to say, 'Are you enjoying this as much as I am?' Scully just half-smiled back. There was another long silence...it seemed as if the Revirans' every word was based on what the firebirds said. "So...you guys want to help us fight the Argothians?"  
  
[Oh, we will serve in you in any and every way you desire!] Havenamy said quickly. [We have brought all of the troops we could muster. But I am afraid that our personal military strength is not nearly enough to fight the war we are facing. Which is where we enlisted the help you see before you now.]  
  
[Speaking of helping, I don't think that just standing around chit-chatting away is going to help matters much,] Trump said impatiently. [When are more of those damn Argothians going to show up so we can kick their...]  
  
[Be patient, you guys,] Yallus interrupted him. [You're not the only ones here that want to fight them. But they're gone for now, and it's time for us to take a breather. Next time we fight them again, we'll be completely prepared.]  
  
[What are we going to do in the meanwhile?]  
  
[Actually...] Yallus gave Mulder and Scully a hopeful look. [I was hoping the firebirds would take us to see Hope? I am the only one that has seen her, and I know everyone here is dying to meet her as well.]  
  
Everyone, even Mulder, looked to Scully for an answer. It just seemed to be the general agreement that Scully was in charge of what Hope did or didn't do. Scully gulped down a nervous lump, unsure if she wanted all the universe crowding into the bungalow to see her nine-month-old baby. She had been frightened enough with just Yallus there, but now there were many more aliens, including the bad-mouthing, gun-toting Chippans. Even the fact that half of the people here had just saved their lives and the other half were worshipping her couldn't change the fact that they were not human. And Scully definitely had a deep-seeded prejudice against non-humans.  
  
"Alright..." Scully finally sighed. "Yallus and Mulder's other two friends can come and see her. And the priestess, um...Reivran, Havenamy, can come too." She looked at the Chippan captain somewhat apologetically before adding, "But none of your people can come. I'm...sorry."  
  
Trump just shrugged. [Hey, do what you want, lady. It's your baby.]  
  
Scully was slightly glad that the Chippans weren't offended by her rejection of them. Most of the Revirans seemed a little sad that they were not getting to see Hope, but they passed it off on their common idea that they were "not worthy."  
  
Although Mulder wouldn't have minded a larger group of the races getting to admire his daughter, he was fine with Scully's decision. Looking around at the Chippan strikers that covered the courtyard, he said, "I guess the only question now is how do we get back home."  
  
[Simple, we'll take the Reviran transport,] Yallus said. [The fighters can only fit one person.]  
  
"W-waitaminute..." Scully interjected suddenly. "Take the transport? You mean the ship? You mean we have to ride back in their ship?" She got a look from everyone that seemed to say a collective 'yes.' "I...I don't know if I'm comfortable with that..." She finally admitted. Scully looked to Mulder for support, but she didn't get any. He had spent over a year on Argothian ships in space, and so he certainly wasn't going to be afraid of being on a Reviran ship that wasn't even leaving the planet.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Scully," He assured her. "It wouldn't take very long for us to get back to the bungalow. It beats walking...plus we wouldn't be left exposed to more of those Argothian fighters if they showed up again."  
  
That was enough to convince Scully. She nodded in agreement, and gave Yallus a look of approval. The Thybiran smiled and said, [Then let's go! I just can't wait for this!]  
  
The Chippans took this to mean it was time for them to leave as well. [Alright, strikers!] Trump called out to his race. [We're heading back to the rendezvous point! Stay in peaceflight formation, but keep your eyes peeled for any more attack gunners!] As the Chippans started to disperse to their separate aircraft, Trump turned back to Yallus. [We'll leave your striker here. Meet us at the rendezvous whenever you're ready.]  
  
Yallus nodded, and saluted the captain. Trump saluted back and then headed for his own striker. As Mulder trailed the captain to his ship, he noticed that the sides were decorated with flames, and a bird-like image was also painted amidst the flames. He had a feeling that those decorations had been added very recently. One by one, the engines on the strikers started up, billowing out bluish gas everywhere. Then the ships rose into the air, and Mulder couldn't help but marvel at the technology that enabled these machines to skip and land from earth to space without wasting any machinery and in practically no time at all. Eventually, all of the strikers had taken off and disappeared to some unknown rendezvous.  
  
And now it was time for Mulder and Scully to board their own ride home. The Reviran slice-shaped transport certainly seemed more comfortable than the rough-and-tumble strikers, but it was still somewhat foreboding. Mulder held onto Scully's hand to tell her that he would stay beside her no matter what.  
  
Yallus and Slander began to eagerly urge Mulder and Scully to get on the transport, for while they just wanted to go back to the bungalow, the other two wanted to share their stories. The Revirans instantly made a path to the ship for the firebirds, wishing for all the worlds that they could roll out the proverbial red carpet. As they passed, the Revirans all bowed to them, like a ripple making its way across the surface of the water.  
  
Then, they reached the entrance of the transport, and stepped inside. The interior was very nicely furnished, even more so than the sky attack gunner had been. There was little furniture, since the Revirans floated and did not really need to sit. There was also a very large glass window in the front and back that gave the occupants a clear view of everything outside. As soon as all of the Revirans and other races were inside, the ramp door shut behind them. Scully cringed a little at being inside this alien craft, and tightened her grip on Mulder's hand.  
  
[If it would not be too much trouble, firebirds,] Audomti requested very carefully, [We need some assistance in navigating our way back to your palace.]  
  
"Um, we don't have a palace," Mulder said with a small laugh. "But we can show you how to get back to the bungalow..."  
  
[Do as you wish.] Audomti bowed again.  
  
Mulder led Scully with him up to the cockpit, and the three other non-Revirans followed them. There were a few pilot Revirans at the controls, awaiting the firebirds to give them directions. "Just go in that general direction," Mulder pointed out the cockpit windshield. "And just keep going that way until I tell you to do otherwise."  
  
Instantly, the ship began humming as its engines started up, and the scenery outside lowered slightly as the craft first began to hover above the ground. Scully did not take her eyes off of Mulder's face as the Reviran transport continued to rise into the air, finding security in Mulder's confidence. The Revirans were very busy floating back and forth, making sure the instruments and the ship itself were running as smoothly as possible, so as to impress the great firebirds with their technology as well as their dedication. As far as Mulder and Scully were concerned, a ship that was easily able to take off and hover over the ground was impressive enough.  
  
As they flew along, Mulder and Scully stared quietly at the burnt wreckage below them from their arial view. Although they had been better able to see the Argothians' destruction on the ground, they were now able to see the magnitude of the destruction. Everywhere there were rows of buildings and streets black and crisp from laser blasts. They couldn't see any people below, and Mulder wondered where they all had gone. Thinking of the other masses there suddenly reminded him of Joyce, and he hoped that she had gotten out alright. Fire trucks and ambulances were finally beginning to arrive on the scene, but they couldn't go very far over the damaged roads. Mulder didn't even want to know how many casualties had resulted from this surprise attack. Just seeing the greenish fire crackling within the remains of buildings was making his stomach turn. "We should have been prepared for this..." He finally muttered.  
  
Scully saw what Mulder was referring to. "Mulder, there was no way we could have seen this coming..."  
  
"It doesn't matter!" Mulder insisted. "We knew what the Argothians were capable of! We've been able to produce and administer the cure, why couldn't we have a created a military defense as well? This could have been prevented..."  
  
[No offense to your race, Mulder,] Yallus said, [but even if you had had your fighters ready to battle the Argothians this would have happened. Your military forces are in no way equipped to fight the Argothians and have a chance of winning. I told you about how when we were coming down here there were other packs of Chippans reporting to us on counterstrikes your race was making. For one thing, your ships don't have energy bolts, and there's no way your puny explosive bolts are going to penetrate Argothian hulls. Secondly, Argothians have shields as well as weapons, and you don't have any shields at all. What kind of intelligent races doesn't include shields in the design of their ships?!]  
  
[Thybiran, you will not insult the race of the firebirds in that way!] The Reviran Teebish said angrily. [Is that any way you show your appreciation for your saviors?!]  
  
Yallus looked like she was about to deliver a sharp comment back, when Mulder quickly butted in, "Don't worry about it, we're not insulted. We know our military is not very advanced. As long as we have you here to help us fight the Argothians, it's okay."  
  
Both races backed off from each other. Mulder felt another surge of his "divine power" in that he was able to dictate how these creatures behaved towards one another. Yallus shrugged off Teebish and then turned her attention to Mulder privately. [Sorry about that, Mulder. It's somewhat strange for me trying to treat you like my friend and equal when I am surrounded by others who consider themselves inferior to you. I wish that I could just sit down and talk to you, and we could exchange stories. I know that Slander and Tho especially have wanted to spend time with you, and the red firebird as well.]  
  
"Don't worry, Yallus..." Mulder gave the Thybiran a grin. "I'm sure that once this is all over we'll have plenty of time to catch up on things. I have a feeling that when you help us beat the Argothians that my people will be more...accepting of other races."  
  
"'When we beat the Argothians...' you sure sound confident," Scully scoffed.  
  
"Hey look, I think I see the bungalow now," Mulder pointed out the windshield. "See? I told you it would be a short trip."  
  
Scully saw the lonely bungalow as well. However, the moment she saw it, she instantly got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Even from up high she could tell that something was missing...  
  
"Where's the Gunmen's van?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Mulder looked down below to where Scully's gaze lay.  
  
"The van is gone," She repeated.  
  
"Well...maybe one of the Gunmen took the van out to get groceries."  
  
Scully said nothing. The Reviran transport positioned itself above the bungalow's area, and then began to descend. An uneasy silence sneaked up on everyone in the ship, as if some odor was wafting up from the concrete walls below. Yallus wanted to create some form of conversation with Mulder and Scully, but she saw the way they were staring outside and she shut her beak.  
  
Slowly and smoothly, the transport descended until it touched down on earth. As soon as the ramp door slid open, Mulder and Scully rushed out and towards their home, eager to be reunited with their friends. Yallus, Slander, Tho and Havenamy followed close behind them, while the rest of the Revirans stayed behind with the transport.  
  
At first, the two firebirds ran quickly towards the bungalow, but the closer they got, the more they slowed down. Scully stopped in front of the door first, and sucked in her breath.  
  
The front door of the bungalow, which was a solid metal door, had been ripped open and was hanging by its top hinges. The glass window in the door was smashed as well. Mulder and Scully exchanged looks, and then together slowly walked through the entrance. Mulder could feel that Scully's hand had become cold, and he swallowed down a lump in his throat. After they stepped inside the bungalow, they saw only barely recognizable shapes in the dark. Mulder felt someone breathing on his shoulder, and he turned around and saw Yallus staring into the room. He felt somewhat easier knowing they had more backup should whatever have caused this still be in here...  
  
The thought caused him to quickly reach over and flick on the light. As soon as the room was illuminated, Scully let out a gasp of horror.  
  
The entire bungalow had been trashed completely, as if two wild animals had fought in it. There was a chair broken into sticks, shards of smashed tableware on the floor, and torn carpet in several places. The walls were the thing that captured Mulder and Scully's attention the most...they were peppered with a few bullet holes, and there was fresh blood splattered on the concrete and staining the carpet.  
  
Scully took in a shuddering breath before whispering, "What happened?...."  
  
Mulder didn't dare to answer. The trash-covered room seemed to spin and blur in his vision, and he couldn't stand to look at anything. A breath of cold wind stirred the papers on the floor, seeming to echo with horrific events that couldn't have taken place that long ago. "Skinner!" Mulder called out, his voice cracking on the stale, blood-scented air. "Is anybody?..."  
  
Both Mulder and Scully jumped where they were standing as a faint thump came from below. They instantly turned their gaze to the stairs that led underground. A small trail of blood marked the path down into the dark concrete hole. In a flash, they both thundered down the stairs, faintly hearing Yallus and the others struggling to follow them. Both of them knew what the other was thinking, what the other was dreading more than anything else...  
  
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, the thump came yet again, jump-starting their hearts. They could faintly see a figure moving around in the dark, as if limping. The figure heard Mulder and Scully come down, and stopped moving.  
  
Mulder immediately reached over and turned on the light. Both he and Scully stopped breathing as they saw what lay before them now. The bomb shelter was an even bigger wreck than the bungalow...almost all the furniture had been knocked over or smashed, and the floor was smeared with blood stains. For the first time, Mulder noticed something else...wide holes in the concrete, fizzing and smoking as if they had been burned off. Puddles of greenish film sat on the fringes of these holes...a sight that was all too familiar for both Mulder and Scully.  
  
But the thing that gave this scene the finishing touch of destruction was Doggett. He was trying to lift himself up by a table, but each time he tried he would fall back down again, causing the thumping they had heard. He gritted his teeth and grabbed at his left leg...which had been horrifically mangled. His leg was covered with deep wounds, which were seeping blood all over the floor. His other leg wasn't as bloody, but they could tell just by looking at it that it had been twisted out of its socket. Doggett seemed to be just coming to, and he touched the bruises and cuts on his face, chest and legs with shock and confusion.  
  
"DOGGETT!" Mulder cried aloud, and he and Scully rushed to help the wounded ex-agent. Doggett moaned loudly, his face scrunched with pain. He blinked at Mulder and Scully, as if at first not realizing who they were. "M-Mulder?..."  
  
"Shh, lay down, and tell us what happened," Mulder said in a voice that quivered.  
  
Doggett was still in shock. He tried to answer Mulder's question, but it came out mostly as mumbling. "Frohike's innuh kitchen...wh...w...where's Maggie?...He w...was gunna...where is sh-she, make sure she's...okay....."  
  
Scully suddenly felt her heart stop, and she leapt up, drawing in each breath as if it would somehow allow her to use her dry voice. She stumbled doggedly over the mess of the living room, heading for the bedroom. The doorway seemed to stretch away from her, but she reached it anyway, gasping incomprehensible words as she did. She threw herself inside, and stopped. She wanted to scream, but the sound froze in her throat along with the rest of her body.  
  
She saw two things in the bedroom. The first one was her mother's body, sprawled out at the bottom of Hope's crib. The second one was that the crib was empty.  
  
Mulder sat on his knees by Doggett's side, breathing slowly, staring at the wall with heavy eyes. Doggett was still trying to talk to him, and Yallus was saying something as well, but all of these sounds became silence in his ears. The only thing he could hear was Scully in the bedroom...he could sense her falling to her mother's side the same way he was beside Doggett. He could sense her breathing turning into sobs that wet her lips and dried her throat, he could sense the tears beginning to squeeze out of her eyes. When she began to speak, Mulder forced himself up, his legs feeling exhausted, and ran to the bedroom.  
  
Scully was sitting on the hard concrete floor, cradling her mother's head in her arms, shaking all over with thick sobs. "Please, mom...you have to tell me where Hope is...you have to get up and tell me where Hope is! Don't do this to me..."  
  
She was stopped by her own tears, which spilled down her face and choked her voice. Scully knew, with some terrible certainty, why her mother would not answer...but she blatantly refused the coldness she felt in her hands. This couldn't happen to her, this couldn't have happened to Maggie...  
  
Mulder walked to Scully until he couldn't support his own weight, and collapsed by her side. He saw the way Maggie had spread her arms across the crib...he saw the dark fingerprints on her neck. Then he couldn't stand to look anymore, and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the moisture that was rising to his own eyelids. He couldn't cry with Scully, as badly as he wanted to, he needed to be strong for her...  
  
"Mulder..." Scully finally choked. "Hope is gone..."  
  
Mulder said nothing.  
  
"Mom won't tell me where she is..."  
  
He still said nothing.  
  
"Dammit, Mulder, don't be strong!" Scully suddenly cried, clutching her mother's body with grief and ferocity. "CRY! I don't want to see you be strong! MY MOTHER IS DEAD AND MY BABY IS GONE, I WANT TO SEE YOU CRY!"  
  
Mulder could not have complied to her wishes more readily. He broke down on the spot, although his tears felt numb and slow. He felt Scully put her forehead on his shoulder, and wet his shirt with her tears. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." She whispered to him, unable to remember the rest of her apology.  
  
Mulder tried to speak, tried to answer her, but his heart was too busy making statements through his tears to use his voice. (Why? Why, of all the people in the world, did this have to happen to Maggie?)  
  
A feeling of heat caused Mulder to open his eyes, and try and wipe the tears from them. He saw Tho, hovering in the air near them. She had turned a dull gray color and was flickering very slowly, as if it were the only way an energy-ball could cry. He also saw Yallus, standing in the doorway, her shoulder-feathers drooping as a reaction to her shock and sadness. Just one look at the bedroom and Mulder and Scully told her what had happened.  
  
[Um....] The Thybiran paused, afraid she would seem insensitive to the firebirds' mourning, when in fact she was just the opposite. [Doggett is beginning to come to more. He's asking for you, and he wants to know if...Maggie's alright.....]  
  
At this, Scully just began to cry harder, and continued to cradle her mother's head. Mulder, however, wiped the tears from his eyes and slowly stood. His grief was beginning to boil and froth into guilt, and then anger...he wanted to find out what had happened, and who had done this. He wanted to know so that he could find them and cause them the pain that they had caused him and Scully tenfold...so he could get them back and make them wish they had never existed. (Whoever did this will pay, and pay dearly...)  
  
Doggett was carefully sitting up in a chair that had survived the attack. He needed to go to a hospital immediately if he wanted to walk again soon, since it seemed that both his legs were broken. Doggett seemed very happy to see Mulder...he had been surrounded by strange alien beings for this past time, and Yallus had been the only one he had recognized. Frohike, who had been lying unconscious in the kitchen, had been dragged into the living room, and the others were still trying to revive him. From the large, ugly bruise on his temple, it seemed that someone had thrown something like a rock at his head.  
  
"Mulder!..." Doggett gasped, trying to sit himself up more. "Where is Maggie? Is she alright?"  
  
Mulder's building anger suddenly regressed back into his earlier sadness. He stared at the floor, and swallowed down more grief. "She's dead. And Hope is gone."  
  
Doggett soaked in the news with tight nerves, and gritted his teeth as if Mulder's words had caused him physical pain. He shook his head very slowly, and groaned, "No....no, uuuugh, I should've stopped him, I knew I shoulda..."  
  
"Stop who?" Mulder's blood shot up from cold to boiling. "Who did this?"  
  
"We were...I think...watching TV. They were talking about alien ships coming down, shooting at people...we were worried, and were going to call you. And then...I dunno...Skinner suddenly collapsed! It looked like...something in his blood, or under his skin, but he couldn't speak...he could barely breathe. But Byers and Langly took him to the hospital right away. It couldn't have been five minutes after they left that we were attacked...me and Frohike tried to fight him off, while Maggie went to guard the baby..."  
  
"Who? Fight who off?" Mulder demanded.  
  
"I...I'm not sure who...a man, a young man, with fairly dark skin and dark hair...he kept talking in this other language...I dunno, I think it was Russian."  
  
Mulder sucked in his breath and clenched his fists. He knew exactly who Doggett was talking about...someone who could incapacitate Skinner by remote, who spoke Russian and would be after their baby...  
  
"Krycek."  
  
Mulder felt his body quiver as if from an electric chill at saying the name aloud. They should have known, should have known that Krycek...the dragon...was coming after Hope sooner or later. (We never should have left the bungalow...we never should have left Hope...if Scully and I had been here we could have stopped him...and saved Maggie.....)  
  
The guilt poured over him slowly and coldly, but it still seemed to evaporate away when heated under the anger he felt towards Krycek. (To think that, right before I was abducted, he came to me and was talking to me like an informant, or even a friend...only to do this now. We never should have trusted him, we should have caught him while we had the chance and never let any of this happen...)  
  
Doggett wet his lips and interrupted Mulder's thoughts. "We should have been able to take him, the three of us together...but he was fighting like a madman! Ripped the door open, started thundering down the stairs, when Frohike and I met up with him. He hit Frohike in the head with something, I dunno what, and literally threw him into the kitchen. Then I remember...trying to shoot him, he knocked my gun away, I yelled at Maggie to protect the baby...and he...pulled out a knife, I tried to get it from him, but he grabbed my leg and it hurt so much I couldn't stand up. He did something else...I'm not sure...I don't really remember anything else."  
  
Yallus looked towards the bedroom, her eyes sad. [She died trying to protect Hope.]  
  
Doggett squeezed his eyes shut again and mumbled quiet curses to himself. Havenamy was also reciting some unknown Reviran prayer, staring silently at the floor under Mulder's feet as if she expected him to answer it for her.  
  
Then Scully entered the room. She looked pale, dry, and weak in the stomach. She stared at everyone in the living room as if they were shadows that would disappear as soon as the lights grew dim. She was deep in grief, and id not seem as if she would be surfacing any time soon. She had lost her mother and her daughter all in one stroke of violence...she could barely comprehend that she was still alive and breathing. She saw Mulder as her only source of comfort, of refuge from this terror that had swallowed her, but the light in his eyes that had always comforted her before was now dim.  
  
"What did Doggett say?" She finally asked in a voice that seemed to heavy to carry itself.  
  
Mulder left the others and came to Scully, knowing that he was going to have to support her emotionally and physically for what he was going to tell her next. He dreaded her reaction, but she had to know just as much as he did.  
  
"It...it was Krycek."  
  
Scully's grief suddenly escalated into a terror that was written all over her face, as if someone had poured ice water over her heart when it was already cold. Her lips trembled as she struggled to speak, and she wondered if she was the only one that understood what this meant...  
  
"Mulder...he's going to kill her!"  
  
Mulder gripped Scully's shoulders, refusing to hear those words come out of her mouth. "No, he won't, we'll find him and stop him before he can even touch her..."  
  
"It's no good, it's no good, he will have already killed her!" Scully broke into choking sobs. "We know who he is, and what he wants, he's going to kill Hope..." Scully could not continue, and she buried her face into Mulder's chest with grief that had just been doubled. Mulder wrapped his arms around her and pressed his tear-streaked face into her hair. "Mulder...I don't know how I'm going to live without her...I don't know how I'll be able to get through this without Hope..."  
  
Mulder suddenly felt his body grow hard and his nerves become tight. He mind instantly settled with resolve, and he felt his blood fill with a determination that he had never felt before. He pulled Scully away from him and saw her pale, tear-stained face, and knew that she didn't deserve this torture. "We ARE going to to find her, Scully," He said solidly. "He's not going to kill her because we're going to stop him before he does." Scully just stared at him, somewhat amazed at his determination. "Do you understand me?" He said, almost shaking her. She nodded slowly, gulping down the rest of her sobs.  
  
"Alright!" Mulder turned so that he faced everyone, automatically assuming the leader position. "The first thing we have to do is to get Doggett and Frohike to a hospital. Then we're going to figure out where Krycek might have gone, and we're going to search him out. I'll call for an ambulance. Yallus, Slander, Tho, Havenamy...when the ambulance gets here you'd better make yourselves scarce. I don't think the doctors would be that warm to other races just yet."  
  
While Mulder went for the phone, there was an unusual silence suspended in the room. Scully cast a glance at Mulder, and then the others, before sitting herself down in another in-tact chair. Mulder's fierce determination had numbed her grief and left her somewhat bewildered. She wanted more than anything to believe Mulder, to think that they would find their baby alive and safe. But a choking feeling in her chest and her mother's body in the other room made her feel otherwise. She did not want to find her daughter dead...she would rather never see Hope again and partially believe that she was alive than discover her innocent daughter's dead body. She sensed that this feeling had an odd familiarity to it...it was the same way she had felt when Mulder had been abducted.  
  
After awhile, Scully became aware of another presence close to her. She looked up and saw Havenamy staring at her intently. As soon as the Reviran priestess caught Scully's eyes, she quickly looked away and bowed. [Forgive me, firebird, I...]  
  
"Please don't do that," Scully sighed. "You don't need to bow to me or anything. I'm not a god, I'm just...a person."  
  
There was a pause. [You are quite different from the way I envisioned you,] Havenamy admitted.  
  
"It's strange...that most of this world hardly knows who I am, hardly likes me, even. Okay, it doesn't like me at all. Yet off on some distant planets, everyone knows me and everyone likes me."  
  
[As we suspected. Those that are greatest are always scorned by those closest to their home.]  
  
"Exactly how much of my life do you know?"  
  
[Only what the legend tells us.]  
  
Scully was beginning to hate the legend. She stared at the red symbol on her hand with contempt. She could have a had a full and happy life, a life with Mulder and their daughter and no one else, if Mulder had not touched her hand and caused the emblem to appear. And now it had brought her to this place...this place with her friends severely injured, her daughter gone, her mother dead, her confidence shattered, the world in flames. This legend was a curse to her and Mulder.  
  
She remembered, for a moment, something Cancer Man had told them when he had suddenly appeared and explained to them how Hope had been conceived... "Follow the legend...after all, it ends in your favor."  
  
(This doesn't feel like "our favor" at all,) Scully thought bitterly. (More like it ends in our demise.)  
  
But the words continued to pester Scully with their hopeful prophecy. (The Child of the Fire kills the dragon? But how? When she is just a helpless baby and the dragon is stronger than a normal human...how is that possible? And then the Argothians retreat in defeat...with the way they attacked us earlier, how is that possible, either?)  
  
Scully glanced back up at the quiet Havenamy. Here she was hating and questioning this legend that had thrust her upwards into the fire, and here was this race that lived by it. In this strange creature's smile she saw a constant, unwavering support for her and her baby. She saw it in the Chippans' loud and rough excitement, in Yallus's steadfast friendship, in Doggett's war wounds and unlimited loyalty, in her mother's martyrdom in protecting Hope, in the lives that her friends and family had left behind to devote themselves to this crazy crusade. Most of all, she felt it in Mulder's arms, and saw it in his eyes. And she couldn't help but wake up every day and say a prayer of thanks that Mulder was here beside her and that she shared her child with him.  
  
(Perhaps...perhaps this legend is not a complete curse on us all.)  
  
Scully's thoughts were broken by Mulder's voice cutting into the thick silence. "I've called the hospital, and they're sending an ambulance, although right now they've overflowing with people injured in the attack. Doggett, I'm afraid you and Frohike might get second priority next to a lot of others that may be worse off."  
  
"Oh, I'll be fine..." Doggett groaned, pretending not to notice the pain in his two broken legs. "Just a flesh wound, and Frohike's just got a bump on his head; we could come with you soon..."  
  
[Look, I'm not sure what your race calls "a flesh wound" or "a bump on the head," but I typically call your injuries "one broken leg and one dislocated leg plus more" and "a concussion, possibly a cracked skull,"] Slander told Doggett. [Mulder is right...you both need hospitalization for awhile.]  
  
Doggett was about to protest again, but decided to keep his mouth shut. It was difficult to argue with the logic of a large, hammerhead rodent-alien.  
  
"Alright...Scully, I suggest that you stay here with Doggett and Frohike. The rest of us will go up...I'll wait for the ambulance, and Yallus and Havenamy have to move the Reviran ship out of sight. As soon as Doggett and Frohike are okay, we'll be joining the others. Langly and Byers will already be at the hospital when Doggett and Frohike get there."  
  
"Mulder...what about..." Scully cast a backwards glance towards the living room.  
  
Mulder's voice slowed. "I told them about that. We'll arrange what needs to be done afterwards. Right now...we have to find Hope."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
Scully sat on a couch-like structure that was cushioned with material that felt like velvet corduroy. She hugged herself coldly, and stared out the window a the empty road that stretched out by her. She could see her reflection in the glass-like barrier, colored fire from the setting sun. The Dana Scully that looked back at her through that wall of fire seemed a miserable being. She was pale in the face, with bags under her eyes. She wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to heat her frozen skin, but her hands were just as cold as the rest of her.  
  
They were aboard the Reviran transport vehicle, which had been moved somewhere farther down the empty road where people couldn't see it easily, although it was pretty conspicuous. Ever since the ambulance arrived, Scully had passed the time with an outer indifference. She had watched with dry eyes as doctors bundled up Doggett and Frohike, and then taken her mother away. Tears had exploded into being when she first discovered the tragedy, and the fallout was closing her throat and making her feel sick. The doctors didn't bother to ask what had happened to the small party in the bungalow...they were too wrapped up in the chaos of the times to try and make sense of anything anymore. They had also not bothered to tell them about the kidnapped Hope...this was a situation which they now needed to handle alone.  
  
(And here we are, ready to fight but knowing that it's probably too late,) Scully thought with a sigh. She did not want to react to anything, she just wanted to line out her grief that was frozen in suspended animation. As she watched the sun set, she had to marvel at the unbelievable events of the day. (First we're attacked by Argothians and are almost blown away, then we're saved by even more aliens, only they're on our side and even worship us, and then we get home and find my mother dead, my daughter kidnapped and everyone else severely injured.) She almost laughed. (This definitely ranks up there as one of the crappiest days of my life.)  
  
She heard Mulder's voice bouncing around the strange metal walls, and she turned her head towards him. She was amazed at the way Mulder was able to charge forward even after all that had happened...while she was being small, cold and silent, he was alive with angry energy. He had been talking to himself for awhile now, and his voice became louder as his frustration grew.  
  
"I just...wish he would have left us a clue!" Mulder groaned, pacing back and forth with nervous Revirans surrounding him on all sides. None of them had ever expected their beloved firebirds to behave like this...to get angry, or afraid, or to mourn. They were supposed to be the saviors of the universe, the ones that provided strength for the weak.  
  
"He couldn't have gone far..." Mulder continued to muse. "Even if he had a car, he couldn't be out of the state by now. I don't know if he could have hidden in one of the ruined buildings back at the wrecked vaccination station...he obviously couldn't have taken her anyplace public if he had been wounded somewhat, which he may have been..."  
  
[Do you know of a hideout he has? Some place that he calls home?] Yallus asked after awhile.  
  
Mulder thought for a moment, but then shook his head. "We never knew much about him...he was very elusive, and you could never tell what his agenda was. At first we thought that Cancer Man could be the dragon, but he proved us wrong. If only I knew..."  
  
[Dragon...] Havenamy said with contempt. [The worst part of the legend, many think. If only we could have had a protection amulet for the Child of the Fire...]  
  
"Think!" Mulder said between his teeth. "This has to make sense somehow! Where does a dragon live?"  
  
There was a long silence. Then Mulder and Scully locked eyes, and stared at each other with realization...they both had the answer.  
  
"In a cave."  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
Hope closed her eyes and screamed, screamed for all she was worth. She was cold, and she ached all over, and when she opened her eyes she saw nothing but darkness. She could hear her own cries coming back to her from over her head as if someone else was crying the same as she. All she could think about was that she was completely alone, in this cold harshness, and she wanted it to be light, and warm, and have her parents hold her. This coldness, this feeling of abandonment and anger...it felt like a punishment. She wondered what she had done to deserve a punishment. All she knew about them was that they happened when her mother was angry and wouldn't hold her and comfort her. She wished they would forgive her and come back, for she wanted to escape this harsh cold roughness against her skin and clothes.  
  
She did not know how long she had been laying here, in this dirty darkness, crying loudly and listening to frightening sounds answer her back. She had cried so much she felt she would stop breathing...she had always been attended to whenever she cried, but now the more she cried the worse it seemed to get. She only vaguely remembered being awakened by a feeling of immense pain, and horrible noises all around her, before it became dark again and she felt the sensation of falling for a long time, surrounded by some dark, rough material. Then she woke up again here, wherever here was.  
  
Hope's sorrow soared as she suddenly got a vague idea that this new place and new feelings were permanent...that she would never see her parents again, because they had become so angry at her that they had left her forever. She screamed even louder, and began to crawl, crawl to where she didn't know, just anywhere but here. Perhaps she could find her parents again, and if she cried enough and clung to them enough they would forgive her and invite her back into their loving embrace. She hoped that she could find them...but she did not crawl far before she felt pain on her hands and knees once again. She continued to scream and tried to wipe a tear out of her eye, but she only managed to dirty her cheek with something blackish on her fist.  
  
"SHUT UP!!!"  
  
The command echoed over her head again, and her little heart leaped with terror. She screamed all the louder at this...she hated that voice, the one that shouted angry words to her in the dark, that would shift in and out of the light from time to time. It was the only other living thing she had seen since she last fell asleep, and she feared it and hated it. She had never experienced this hateful feeling before...it made her feel bad, like she was doing something wrong and would be punished again. The only thing she knew was this thing was not like the other beings of warmth that she knew and loved...it wanted to hurt her, to strip her of her love and comfort and security and even more. She wished that this was all just a bad dream, and that the horrible loud thing and the cold darkness and the pain the ground caused would evaporate into nothing the moment she woke up, and she would be back in her mother's grip and her father's warmth.  
  
But if this was a nightmare, it was the longest and more hurtful nightmare she could ever remember experiencing. So she screamed, and gulped down air to scream again, in a vain hope of escaping the darkness.  
  
"I said SHUT UP!" The voice growled again. "I'm so sick and tired of listening to you, why can't you just die already?!!"  
  
Hope just screamed more.  
  
Krycek cursed to her quietly. He resumed his pacing, and kicked rocks that were in his path. His head throbbed and his side ached, and no amount of medicine would make the pain go away. (Stupid S.O.B. agent-thing...I'll kill him if I ever seen him again, idiot thing shooting at me...) He wondered if he could even recognize that gray-haired man in the bungalow if he saw him again...his memory was beginning to phase out on him. He hardly remembered anything from before They had picked him up and operated on him. It was just one of the many prices he had to pay for still being alive...that, and having constant headaches, and chest pains, and bursts of energy that could potentially cripple him.  
  
There was one thing he did remember, though...that the baby he brought to this place was his enemy, and it needed to be destroyed. It was a danger to his survival, for it threatened the survival of the fittest. (It can't be allowed to do this...to halt the natural course of things, to let the weak survive and the strong die. If it lives, it'll mess up everything! Why won't people realize that, how did everyone start thinking backwards?!)  
  
(And yet here you are, standing here, hating it, and not doing anything about it,) Another voice in his head hissed at him. (What kind of man are you, to be afraid of a child?! There's nobody here, it's helpless, kill it now! The knife, you can use the knife, or find a gun! Drown it, throw it off a cliff, hell, you can pick up a rock and throw it and it'll be done!)  
  
He felt a growl rise up in his throat, and he automatically reached down and picked up a large rock. Catching the Child of the Fire in his eye, he hurled it forcefully in her direction. It missed, intentionally, and made a shotgun sound as it hit a few inches from her head. Hoped moved away from the crack she heard and wailed miserably.  
  
"Will you just shut up?!" Krycek yelled at her again, considering picking up another rock and trying again. "You have no right to be sad. Pretty little child, perfect little child, everybody loves her, when you're nothing more than a wretched little MONSTER!" He stood up and came closer to her. "Look what you did to me! I'm not human, I'm not alien, I'm some big dark THING that people hate and shoot at! You turned me into this...this nightmare, and I hate this world and I hate their world and I hate myself and I HATE YOU. I HOPE I KILL YOU VERY SLOWLY AND VERY PAINFULLY SO YOU KNOW JUST HOW HORRIBLE LIFE IS, YOU LITTLE WITCH, LITTLE RAT!!!"  
  
Hope just screamed.  
  
Krycek suddenly felt as if he was experiencing a panic attack...the little baby on the ground before him had understood his threats, and was going to kill him for it! He knew that she certainly could, now that he had been given Their blood. (Idiot Argothians! How could they have been so stupid?! Making me like Them has made me the very opposite of what They wanted me to be!)  
  
Now he stood right over Hope, glaring down at her with contempt and fear. "You may think you're the hero, an you can bring me down, but not if I kill you first! And I will do it, I will, I will, I will!!"  
  
Her crying just seemed to be snickering at him, "So why don't you?"  
  
"Because you're a baby and the only think left of me that isn't Argothian says no no no!" He answered, raking his fingers through his oily hair and down his face. "A baby won't hurt you, why kill it?! But you will hurt me, you monster, so grow up so I can kill you!!"  
  
Krycek roared as something flashed in his eyes white and piercing, and he shut them in pain. The light seemed to heat up his brain and make his headache return fivefold. Then there were sounds...feet on rock, voices, clicks and screeches.  
  
Mulder, Scully, Yallus, Slander, Tho and Havenamy all stopped at once as Hope's crying reverberated around the cave walls, and their flashlights caught the movement of something close to her. By scanning geological maps that they had managed to scrounge up, they had located an area close to the coast dotted with dozens of caves and fairly far away from civilization, and they determined that that was where Krycek had gone. Getting there had been far too slow for anyone's liking, and by now it was almost an evening...a full say since Hope had been kidnapped.  
  
And for Mulder and Scully, 24 hours of hell just ended here. They had been tirelessly searching the depths of these cliff caves for the past four hours, facing the changes of a rockslide, or other geological obstacle, or finding their daughter dead among the rocks. They were worn and weary, covered in dirt and sand, wanting to rest but unwilling to stop for even a minute if they were this close.  
  
And then Hope's crying could be heard echoing with loneliness throughout the caverns. The sound had sent them into a near frenzy, dashing through caves that leaped like fireflies and hearts to match their jumping. They listened for the crying, trying to determine where it was coming from, and growing more frightened by the minute. Every dead end broke down their shield of faith even more, and they had started to wonder if the crying was simply their imaginations manifesting themselves in the echoes of any normal cave. Until now.  
  
The cave suddenly became completely silent. Even Hope, sensing the bond suddenly strengthened between herself and her parents, stopped wailing and looked towards them with thankful eyes. Krycek stood over her, paralyzed with something between fear, shock and hatred. Mulder and Scully faced him, even more afraid than he was, and not daring to move. Their non-human friends stood behind them, feeling more anger than anything else, and ready to fight as soon as they were permitted.  
  
As they stood there, staring each other down, a radical transformation seemed to overcome Mulder. He felt the blood in his toes begin to itch with hot fire, and it boiled all the way up to his face. He could feel the same sensations filling Scully's body beside him. He felt as if they were bolts of light thrust into the black metal he had touched so long ago...legends become flesh and blood, now acting out what had been prophesied eons ago in unknown worlds. The sensation affected his body, his perception, and the words that came out of his mouth.  
  
"Dragon...this is your end...give us back the Child of the Fire, and perhaps you will live and defy what is known to happen."  
  
Krycek spoke in a voice to match Mulder's...only it was obvious that he also spoke like a madman, or a monster. He was not the same person they had known for so long. "This is my destiny and yours, firebirds! She will die, and I will not let you stop me! If you try, I'll kill you all!"  
  
"You can't kill us..." Scully said as she and Mulder began to walk forward slowly at the same time. "We're immune to your poisons. And so is she. But you're not immune to us."  
  
"Don't think I can't hurt you, or the Child of the Fire!" Krycek threatened, drawing his knife. Mulder and Scully stopped momentarily. "Faithful steel tastes just as sweet as any poison! At least it'll be a better death then what you did to me, red one!"  
  
"You did it to yourself. You died when I shot you, you bastard, and now you're just madness in a shell! Give me my child back!!"  
  
"You want your little terror? Then come and get her...and tell her to shut the hell up!" Krycek finished his challenge with a spit, which landed disgustingly on Hope's hand.  
  
The dragon was not even aware that the blue one had moved until he felt his skull hit the ground behind him. He was dazed, but only momentarily, and punched upwards at the angry eyes of the firebird. There was a grunt as the blue one stumbled backwards, he kicked, and moved aside as the red one thrust forward to attack. The Child of the Fire, sensing the danger that had seized the cave by the throat, began to scream again.  
  
The fight ranged all over, making its way from one end of the room to the other, traveling up and down rock piles, illuminated eerily buy Tho's brilliant body in the distance. The dragon was outnumbered, but he fought back with superhuman strength, and was able to keep one down while fighting off the other. The blue one was everywhere on him, intending to match him scar for scar on his face and all over his body, the constant reminders of the hell he had endured for over a year. He imagined the man before him as the chair, the torture chair that he needed to smash into a million pieces, and the faces of Argothians that sneered at him as they cut him open. Now the bonds on his wrists were broken, and he sent his fists crashing into the dragon's jaw with the ferocity of the wild bird he had become. He flew at the dragon as if on wings, wings ablaze with blue fire.  
  
The red one matched the other in strength and ferocity muscle for muscle, bone for bone. She well remembered the constant pains this monster of a man had caused her...her sister's death, her mother's death, Mulder's abduction, and her daughter's kidnapping. She could not imagine feeling more hatred than she did now...this desire to kill, to do what he had been doing to her all her life. She felt her limbs become light with energy and yet weighed down with hate as she struggled to grab at the dragon and throw him down, dash his body against the rocks. It would never make up for what he did to her.  
  
The fight was given terrible music with the Child's crying. The others could have moved in and possibly picked her up, but they were too mesmerized by the fight and its possible outcome to even move. They knew that they were watching the legend in action, and they couldn't tear their eyes away from the scene.  
  
The dragon waved his knife dangerously in the blue one's face, skipping over rocks with a dirty grin. "Hit me again and I'll slit your throat, firebird!"  
  
The firebird ignored the warning and charged, planting his fist in the dragon's neck. Then he stumbled backwards as he felt immense pain in his shoulder...and turned in amazement to see the knife's hilt protruding from his shoulder. From the side, the red one cried out in fear. "Let's see you try and fly now, firebird!" The dragon hissed dangerously.  
  
He reached and pulled the knife out of his shoulder, feeling hot blood stain his shirt crimson. He hardly even felt the sound...the only thing he heard was the Child's crying, and that hurt as if someone had stabbed his heart. He flipped the knife around and lunged it at the dragon, intending to do more than a simple flesh wound. He missed, and dropped the knife, but felt instead a large, heavy object catch him upside the skull and send him spinning towards earth.  
  
The red firebird watched her partner go down and charged at the dragon for all she was worth, releasing some unidentifiable cry from her throat. She shoved him hard in the side, sending him over a pile of rock and face first onto the ground.  
  
There was a slight pause as the two firebirds regained themselves, shaking off bloody dust. Then the dragon began to stand again, although shakily, and growled with hatred. He had cut himself on the sharp rock, and his face and chest where now covered with green-blooded cuts. His voice became gravely and low as he hissed, "Your daughter will suffer greatly for this."  
  
Breaking his frozen state, he whirled and snatched Hope in a burst of speed. The firebirds froze, eyes fixed upon their daughter hovering in the air, and the bloodied knife beneath her. She wriggled and cried, recognizing the fear in her parent's eyes. The dragon smiled through wounded pants, and held the knife closer. "Not so energetic when your precious baby's in danger, are ya?" He snarled menacingly. "You take one more step towards me and I'll cut her open!"  
  
The blue one would not be intimidated by threats. "You are a coward to threaten us this way. You will put her down and fight us, not her!" He moved forward.  
  
"YOU MOVED!" The cry came from the dragon, and then the knife flashed in his hand. Hope screamed...a miserable, painful scream of more than just a frightened child. She screamed at the long, clean gash on her ankle and the blood that dripped from it between her toes.  
  
The red one screamed too, but it was more like a harsh sob that ended in a whimper. She lurched forward as if someone had squeezed her heart to burst, and her face instantly whitened.  
  
"I'm not afraid to kill her!" The dragon yelled. To prove his point, he flashed the knife across her again, and a second gash appeared on the other ankle. Hope's screams doubled, and Scully choked on her breath again. Tears sprung up and caused small mudslides down her face.  
  
Mulder's voice was small and shaky, revealing the terror that was beginning to spread inside him. "No...stop that....."  
  
"What'll it be next, firebirds?!" Krycek laughed, his eyes ablaze. "The chest, the wrists, the neck?!! Wanna see what your scars look like on a baby, blue firebird?!"  
  
Mulder snapped. Without a word, he rushed at Krycek, and felt Scully come onto his side, caught in his attack. The knife was flashing scarlet in the light, moving towards the baby's throat, when Mulder slammed his side into Krycek's stomach. At the same time, Scully grabbed Hope out of her captor's grasp, and clasped the child into her embrace with a cry of sorrow. She stumbled backwards as Hope's shrill cries pierced her ears and her blood stained her shirt.  
  
Mulder's charge threw Krycek to the ground, but as soon as the crack of bone against stone was heard, the dragon was up and with both hands on Mulder's neck. Mulder fell back and felt the breath leave his lungs. He tried to gasp out a warning as Krycek preparing to bring the knife down on Scully's head.  
  
Scully turned, her fiery hair caught in the dirtiness of her face, her eyes burning with hot light, her hands covered in the blood of the screaming child in her arms. She thrust her hands towards the oncoming Krycek, trying to shield her daughter from more searing pain. As she pushed him back, she touched the green- blood cuts on Krycek's shoulder and chest.  
  
Krycek stopped in his tracks as if a chain had snared his throat, and the knife slipped from his shaking hands. He groaned aloud as the blood from the Child of the Fire mixed with his own blood. The crimson blood attacked the green acid with a visible intensity, and a smokish substance hissed from the wounds. Krycek toppled to his knees, and then his side, moaning and clutching his chest. He could feel the baby's pure blood boiling away his Argothian blood, stripping away the itchy-wet feeling of life from him. He tried to cry out, but his words blurred into painful grunts and groans.  
  
Mulder got up, breathing heavily, and automatically moved towards Scully as they watched the scene before them. Krycek wriggled on the ground like a dying fish, pleading for help with wordless moans. Finally, his moving slowed to stillness, and the moan in his throat went cold. The strange and chaotic atmosphere seemed to leave the cave as Krycek died upon the rock.  
  
Mulder closed his eyes to the dead body before him, and concentrated only on the sounds around him...his own desperate gasping, Scully's sobs, and Hope's painful screaming. They seemed quiet in his mind after the whirlwind of emotions just moments before. He was just glad that he had the chance to stop, and breathe...  
  
"Mulder..."  
  
"I know..."  
  
"No, Mulder, look!"  
  
Mulder forced his eyes open and turned to Scully, not wanting to see her or Hope after what had just happened. But he saw Scully holding Hope in her arms, wide-eyed, not with fear but with amazement. The deep wounds on her ankles were beginning to close. The crimson blood suddenly became brown as if it had instantly been scabbed over, and then the baby's soft flesh began to repair itself. Hope continued to cry as strong as ever, but it was no longer because of her wounds.  
  
Mulder crept close to their daughter, completely shocked at this unexpected occurrence. "How...how did she...?"  
  
"I don't know," Scully shook her head in amazement. Even as the wounds continued to heal themselves, Scully realized that she was holding her child away from her, and she quickly embraced her again. "Oh baby...it'll be okay now, you're safe again..."  
  
Mulder wrapped his arm around Scully as she began to weep, whether from exhaustion or shock or relief none of them knew. He gave one last glance of contempt at the dead Krycek before turning them around and starting back to the entrance of the cave.  
  
Scully stared down through tears at Hope, who was now whimpering quietly, eternally thankful to be reunited with her parents. Scully looked at the healed ankles, trying to figure them out, when she was reminded of more vague information mentioned to them: "...She had abilities that you aren't even aware of yet."  
  
(She can kill Argothians and she can heal herself? What if she has even more abilities...ones which we aren't aware of or haven't developed yet? Just how far does this Child of the Fire image go?)  
  
[Firebirds!] Yallus called as they came forward. [Are you...]  
  
"We're alright," Mulder sighed, pretending not to notice the wound in his shoulder. "Which is more than I can say for the dragon."  
  
The moment Hope came into view, Havenamy bowed low. [Great Child of the Fire...you have defeated the dragon, and deserve the praise of every creature in the universe. I represent thousands of your followers, and we all give you our most sincere devotion. I pray that you accept out offering of prayer.]  
  
Hope just whimpered and gave an odd look to the Reviran. "She likes it," Scully answered for her.  
  
"I feel like it's ended now...we've gotten through the climax. The dragon is dead, and the legend is over," Mulder stated.  
  
[Oh, it's far from over,] Yallus warned. [The dragon is no longer a threat, but the Argothians are still here and they have a chance of winning this war without him.]  
  
"We can beat them! As long as we can keep giving out the vaccinations and fighting them off with the Chippans, we can stop them."  
  
[Then we'd best get moving...Trump is waiting to meet up back at the rendezvous point. Apparently, there are new developments on the battlefield.]  
  
Mulder and Scully exchanged weary glances. They wanted to stop and rest, recover from the emotional avalanche they had just been though. They wanted to spend time with their rescued daughter, and comfort her with their quiet security. But as fate would have it, they were doomed to constant action, to moving from one threat to another and then back again. "Fine...we'll go," Scully sighed.  
  
[What about...him?] Slander nodded his head in Krycek's direction.  
  
"Leave him," Mulder said bitterly. "This is the fate he deserves...the one he chose for himself. Later we'll come back and seal up the cave entrance."  
  
Nobody argued with that decision. Slowly, as if not wanting to disturb the scent of death that hung in the cave, the firebirds and their friends stepped out into the fading sunlight.  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
Skinner watched Hope's curious face with a broad smile, and then looked up to where Mulder and Scully were standing over her. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see her alive and well...and how thankful I am to hear the news you've brought."  
  
"We're probably the ones who should be happy to see you alive and well, after what nearly happened to you." Mulder smiled.  
  
The group had amassed once again, and was this time larger than ever. They were all gathered in an abandoned warehouse close to the Chippan striker fleet. Chippans were everywhere in the warehouse, making loud jokes, trading interesting and useless objects, and shooting at rats that dared to show their faces. They were extraordinarily bored, and wanting to go back out and fight Argothians.  
  
The Revirans were also there bu they hung close to the firebirds instead of being spread out. Mulder, Scully and Hope and their closest friends always seemed to be in the middle of this self-forming circle.  
  
Skinner, Doggett and Frohike had finally been released from the hospital. Without Krycek controlling the nanobots inside Skinner's blood, the former assistant director was soon able to heal and be back on his feet. Doggett was on crutches and was constantly sore, but he refused to stay in the hospital any longer than was absolutely necessary. All of Mulder and Scully's human friends were eventually introduced to their non-human ones, and although there was some friction, they basically accepted each other.  
  
"Well, I got pretty scared as they were loading me into the van..." Skinner nodded towards Langly and Byers. "I knew what was happening to me, and who was doing it. And with what you told me earlier, I knew why it was happening. I just wish I had been able to warn everyone before..." He stopped, and looked at the floor.  
  
"It's nobody's fault," Scully said with a deep breath. She knew that she needed to say this, no matter how much she may still be hurting. "It's nobody's fault but his own. And he can't hurt us anymore."  
  
"We just need to know what's going on now," Mulder said.  
  
"We've been watching the news 24/7 while we were in the hospital," Doggett told them. "There's been continued attacks from those small Argothian fighters, and there's also definitely been a military resistance. At first our fighters thought that your friends here were also attacking them, and tried to shoot them, but they've also contacted the military and are trying to communicate with them."  
  
[Trying being the operative word,] Trump grumbled. [I can't tell you how much easier translos make life! Blackwing has been radioing me with her attempts to communicate with your army, and they won't even give her some paper to draw a picture! And Spuckler can't even pronounce your leader's name!]  
  
"Umm...why do the Chippans have such odd names?" Mulder whispered to Yallus. "I mean...Trump? Blackwing? Spuckler?!"  
  
[Fly names,] Yallus whispered back. [Once Chippans get their first ship they chose a new name for themselves...usually some personality quirk.]  
  
[That's not the worst of it,] Another Chippan spoke up. [We can fight off sky attack gunners, no problem. But they're starting to bring out the warships.]  
  
"Whatever they are, they don't sound good," Mulder said cooly.  
  
[Big ships, like their doctoral transports, only they're meant for attacking rather than abducting. Very slow, can't maneuver if their life depended on it, but they pack a punch and have great shields.]  
  
[The good news is that they're the Argothians' last line of defense,] Yallus explained. [Their plague is a lost cause because of the Child of the Fire's blood, and they're no match against the Chippan fighters. If we can knock out their big ships, they'll either retreat, surrender or keep fighting until they're obliterated. It's completely against all Argothian logic to surrender, and I've never known Argothians to retreat before, so we have to kill them all!]  
  
"So what's the bad news?"  
  
[the bad news is that their warships are very hard to destroy. Basically it would take a very strong and very fast attack involving practically the entire fleet. It would be very dangerous, but we could pull it off.]  
  
"Then we'd have to get started right away, wouldn't we?" Skinner butted in. "Before they decide to attack us first. And if I know the United States military, we shouldn't wait around for them to figure out we're trying to help."  
  
[We're ready to go,] Trump announced. [We're just waiting for you to give us the okay. As soon as you say so, we're radioing the other fleets on your homeworld to begin their own attacks.]  
  
Mulder blinked with surprise when he realized that the Chippans were looking at him and Scully. "Wait...you mean us? We don't know anything about fighter fleets or how to organize attacks. You could have just started the attack without us."  
  
[Well, since you are the firebirds, we figured that all major decisions should go through you first. Plus, we reserved a striker or two for you if you want to join us...]  
  
"NO," Mulder said decisively. "None of us can fly a fighter plane, no matter what kind it is. We can help, but only if it involves doing something on the ground."  
  
[Very well, then...you'll miss all the action, but I would recommend that you stay safely out of the range of falling ships.]  
  
Mulder and Scully didn't like the sound of that. They had Hope with them this time, and they certainly didn't want to be outrunning any more alien ships with a baby to carry. Mulder cleared his throat and said, "Okay...let's go now."  
  
The Chippan strikers were all ready to go and waiting for their owners. The Chippan pilots left the warehouse whooping excited war cries, and went to their respective fighters. Trump went to his own striker, painted over with fire and the image of a bird, and quickly switched on his radio console. [Hey, Tuggles! Spread the word to all the other fleets...we're going right now! Set up mass formations, go for the warships! You know what to do.]  
  
Mulder and Scully and the rest stepped out of the warehouse as well, blinking in the midday sunlight. In the sky far above them, they could see the big, black Argothian ships sitting like forming rainclouds. After some time, Mulder and Scully had grown used to seeing these ships in the sky and sometimes even forgot what they really were. They seemed to be a distant threat, some dangerous thing far away from them, instead of something immediate and deadly. However, they both knew these appearances to be deceiving, and they knew that they could never truly be safe until these ships and their inhabitants were destroyed.  
  
"I just hope these guys know what they're doing..." Mulder heard Doggett say from behind him. It was obvious he was still not on the friendliest of terms with the Chippans.  
  
"I figure they know more about what they're doing than we do," Mulder replied. "We do need their help if we're ever going to beat the Argothians."  
  
[Well, wish me luck! We're all going to need it,] Another familiar voice came from behind. Mulder turned and saw that Yallus was also getting herself ready, heading out with the other Chippans.  
  
"Wait! You're going up there too?" Mulder asked, surprised.  
  
[Of course! You think I'm just going to sit around when I can be giving those Argothians a taste of Yallus Tallo? Slander wants to go too, only he doesn't know how to fly a striker.]  
  
"Well...you be careful," Mulder warned. "I want to see you come back down safely."  
  
[Oh, I'll come back down, no worries there. You take care, firebirds!]  
  
"We will!"  
  
The Thybiran gave them a final smile and trotted towards her own striker, which was painted brilliant red with a black streak down the middle. Pretty soon all of the Chippans had strapped themselves into their personal vehicles, and the only ones left outside were Mulder, Scully and the rest, along with Trump. He gave Mulder a thump to get his attention, and the nodded in the direction of another striker without a pilot. [You can still be of a help to us...just listen in on what's going on with the intercom from this extra striker. You can also talk back to us and give us some pointers. Since you'll be on the ground, you can better see the "big picture."]  
  
"I'm not sure how much of a help we'll be, but we'll try," Scully said, hugging Hope closer to her.  
  
[See ya on the other side of victory!] Trump said, and sprinted for his own striker.  
  
As soon as the captain had strapped into his own striker, all of the fighter crafts started their engines, filling the entire area with a blast of uncomfortable heat. Then all the ships hovered over the ground, being propelled upwards by some unknown force. Mulder and Scully watched in awe as the entire fleet, which contained nearly 30 fighters, all rose into the sky at once. It was a very impressive sight; almost as much as the black discs that challenged them.  
  
As the strikers began to go in a definite direction, keeping in formation, Mulder headed for the extra striker so he could listen in on what was going on. The entire group followed him, and the couldn't help feeling for an instant that he was the head of some large flock, excepting Scully and Hope. He was not entirely sure how to operate the alien controls of the striker, but after some fiddling around he finally found the intercom console and switched it on.  
  
Almost instantly, the console picked up sounds of Chippans talking, their voices barely distinguishable from one another. Mulder, Scully and the others listened to the intercom intensely, as if they were listening to war news on the radio, and at the same time kept their eyes glued to the ships in the sky.  
  
[Maverick, Gungod, Spuckler, Firestar, Floggins, take yourselves to the moonrise side of that thing!] Trump announced, his voice charged with fighting energy. [Blackwing, Trooper, Suncrusher, Blueblaze, Twinkles, you take moonset! The rest of us will tackle the nose. That includes you, Thybiran!]  
  
[I'm on it!] Yallus replied.  
  
Those below watched in amazement as the fighter ships met the Argothian warship high in the air. Mulder automatically reached for Scully's hand, and she met his halfway, wanting his security as much as he wanted hers. They felt the symbols on their hands flare into brilliance when they touched palms, and the Revirans sucked in exhilarated breaths. They all knew that there was nothing they could do now except watch...and hope.  
  
The Argothians were ready for the oncoming Chippans. From somewhere within the black complex of metal that served as the ship's hull there emerged lightning-fast bolts of green energy. The strikers swerved just in time.  
  
[Hey look, the 'Gothies are saying hello!]  
  
[Let's not be impolite, then...]  
  
The strikers returned fire. White bolts came from their own cannons, but the firepower was simply absorbed into the Argothians' special shield.  
  
[Alright, looks like they've put up curtains around the deal! rise-leader, set-leader, when I say, dispatch some snark- claws,] Trump said.  
  
The strikers came in as close to the warship as they could before swerving away at the last minute, and then coming around to pass again. This time, three of the strikers (including Trump's) shot out different-looking bombs with very long, sharp wings. One of these bombs was intercepted by a green blast, and it exploded in midair. However, the other two made it to the ship, and exploded as the sharp wings of the bombs pierced the Argothian energy shield. The result was two large holes in the shield, which the Chippans could shoot at. And shoot at it they did.  
  
[Ha-haw, I love snark-claws!]  
  
[I suppose the Argothians don't want to hear the "hole" story!]  
  
[Hurry, go, hit the open spots!]  
  
The battle instantly became a world of chaos in the sky. Strikers were everywhere, zipping back and forth across the black metal menace, dodging green bolts, although not always successfully. Some of the Argothians' defensive firepower was hitting the ground below, setting abandoned buildings ablaze and causing the watchers below to jump in their skins.  
  
[Watchit, waaatchit, that thing almost took out your setwing!]  
  
[Ha! Did you see that?!]  
  
[Take out that one cannon, the one near the bottom!]  
  
[Yallus, careful, you were getting real close!]  
  
[I'll get as close as I want! I'm here to show them that they'll never destroy the Thybiran race!]  
  
Suddenly, one of the green bolts finally found its target, and struck one of the fighter ships. Part of the striker exploded, and the others watched in horror as the rest came tumbling to earth like a falling star. The striker landed not very far from the observers, and burst into flame again the moment it touched ground.  
  
[What happened? Who'd we lose?!]  
  
[They got Trooper! Those thriscrap Gothies killed Trooper!]  
  
[Ship for a ship, fellas, let's see how they like it!]  
  
The fighters almost became lost within the smoke that began to emerge from the explosions - the only thing definite was the frantic voices of the pilots on the intercom, shouting commands and warnings to each other. Nobody on the ground said anything, but they could all see the anxiety in the others' faces. Mulder did not take his eyes off of the red striker with the black streak...he knew his friend was up there, battling those which she despised most, those which had taken everything she had known and loved. He watched her, although his eyes felt weak with worry...  
  
[More snark-claws! Aim for the cannons, we need some more openings...]  
  
[Little Noise! We lost Little Noise!]  
  
[Ha, I got that one!]  
  
[Somebody has to eventually find the engines, we need to bring them down...]  
  
[I got hit--]  
  
[Spuckler, you okay?!]  
  
[My risewing got clipped, but I think I'll manage.]  
  
Yallus was getting more than a little reckless. She dove in close to the Argothian warship, her fingers clenched around the controls, her feathers damp with sweat. [I'm going in for their shield generator!] She announced. [Somebody cover me, and give me a snark-claw!]  
  
One of the strikers reluctantly zoomed in alongside Yallus as she came in over the top, dodging Argothian gunfire left and right. She did not have the reflexes of her experienced Chippan cohorts, and was having a little more trouble keeping steady than they did.  
  
A blast came towards her, and Yallus dodged, accidentally allowing the bolt to take out one wing of her tagalong pilot. [I'm out, I need to land!] The pilot exclaimed.  
  
[Give me the snark-claw!] Yallus replied, deep into her frenzy.  
  
[I can't, I'll destabilize...]  
  
[I need it now!]  
  
The retreating pilot managed to shoot out the sharp-winged bomb before spinning towards earth. The striker crashing into the second story of a building and then skidded the rest of the way down, but the Chippan pilot looked to have survived.  
  
The snark-claw bomb split the energy shield close to the spot that Yallus wanted. She kept her vision tight on the black machinery that was causing this troublesome shield. She could feel the eyes of everyone there on her...the Chippans swarming all over the warship, the Argothians within, and the Revirans and Humans on the ground. [ARGOTHIANS, YOU ARE NO MATCH AGAINST THE FIREBIRDS AND THEIR LEGIONS! I AM YALLUS TALLO, AND I WILL DO TO YOU WHAT YOU DID TO US ALL!!!] She roared to the universe, and squeezed down on the trigger.  
  
Her white bolts left the cannons and shot towards the warship with the force of her challenging words. The Thybiran was on target - the bolts hit the ship's shield generator, and instantly knocked out the only barrier between the Argothians and the Chippans' ferocity.  
  
At the same time, however, the Argothian defensive cannons were on target as well. Even as the shields died, the green bolts struck Yallus's striker, and part of the ship burst into flames.  
  
"YALLUS!!"  
  
Mulder cried out to the sky as he watched her ship spin to the harsh ground, a trail of red smoke marking her descent. His breath clogged in his throat, and he felt Scully's body beside him tense with horror. His cry hung in the sticky air until the ship reached the ground, and more fire and smoke rose up.  
  
"Come on!" Mulder was suddenly energized, and he leaped away from the striker, his heart thundering with grief and dread. He ran in the direction of Yallus's crash, trying hard to contain his frightened knowledge to "mere possibility." Slander and Tho instantly followed him, their faces as worried as his. Scully started to follow but then stayed back. She stared up at the crimson sky and pressed Hope's face to her chest with cold hands.  
  
Mulder sprinted across the empty street on exhausted limbs, already fearing that it was too late, that his running to Yallus's aid was in vain. He could hear Slander trying to keep up behind him, and felt the heat of Tho beside him. He kept his gaze on the column of smoke that marked her fall, and darted through empty buildings' hallways, his mind racing...(They couldn't have gotten her...not her, too...)  
  
Then they reached it. The striker was lying in blackish pieces all over the street, flames cracking at the metal that had been shattered. Mulder felt his stomach turn as he saw a broken wing lying far away, and the ship's nose rocking in the wind a fair distance from the rest...and then the cockpit.  
  
Mulder hesitated before rushing up to the broken and burnt piece of machinery. He could faintly see the Thybiran behind the shattered glass...looking black, and wet, and not moving.  
  
"YALLUS!" The name came out of Mulder's throat like a choke, small and desperate. He felt his lips tremble with something that wasn't crying, but was more a reaction to physical pain. He saw the black, wet mass of feathers stir, and Mulder instantly scrambled to the cockpit, ignoring the pain of the heated metal. He carefully swung the cockpit door open...only to find Yallus looking at him with moisture in her aquamarine eyes, her chest heaving painfully with each breath.  
  
"Yallus..." Mulder breathed with something between relief and sorrow. He couldn't stand to see his friend looking like this, burnt and bloodied and dying before him, yet he couldn't tear his eyes away. "Y-you'll be alright...we'll get you to a hospital, somewhere, and you'll be okay again....."  
  
The Thybiran cracked a smile to him somehow. Her voice was light and hollow, as if her voice were fading along with the rest of her life. [I...I...I d-don't think-k s-s-so, blue fireb-bird.]  
  
Tho had turned a dark blue gray, and flashed a message that Mulder knew he could understand...one of sorrow, of denial of what was happening, of hope that somehow things would turn out okay. Mulder's throat closed, refusing to let out the words that he wanted to say...  
  
[I-I k-k-kept my p-promise to you-u, bl-blue firebird...] She whispered hoarsely. [I c-came back-k dow-own.]  
  
"Yallus...don't..."  
  
The smile faded as her eyes finally closed. Mulder held his breath until her own chest ceased to move, and the cockpit became silent with the feel of lifelessness. The blue firebird's head sank as he watched the very last of the Thybiran race join her predecors, and end their legacy at last. He wanted to cry, to mourn the passing of his faithful friend, but he felt no tears wet his skin. It was hard, despite all he had understood and done, to mourn for someone who was not human.  
  
He expected to feel the usual anger towards the Argothians for shooting down Yallus, but instead he just felt an immense sadness. It made him sick in his heart to have another casualty of this hated war, to lose another friend to these monsters' hunger for power. He couldn't cry, couldn't yell, couldn't cause pain to others...all he could do was ache inside.  
  
[Look!] Slander's voice suddenly broke his somber trance. [The warships!]  
  
Mulder lifted his gaze to the heavens with dry, weary eyes. He saw the Chippan strikers still swarming around the warship...but something was different. The warship was moving away, getting smaller as it went faster, being peppered by explosions all over. It took Mulder a minute to realize what was happening...the Argothians were retreating!  
  
[They did it...] Slander said in a breathless voice. [Those Chippans did it! The Argothians are leaving!]  
  
Mulder said nothing. He just watched the black ships grow smaller as they lifted away from the danger, the counterattack...away from him, and Scully, and Hope, and those who lived to fight on. He watched them leave, and felt the relief mix with the sorrow, filling his mouth with a bittersweet taste. (We did it. We sacrificed...and we won.)  
  
He watched the Argothians leave and felt the hot wind blow the scent of burnt metal through his hair.  
  
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
  
The evening was cool and pleasant, with faint wisps of something barbecuing catching a ride on the breeze. Mulder felt the grass on his palms, pressing imprints of their blades on his skin. But the grass was nonexistent compared to the feeling of Scully's head on his shoulder, her hair gently brushing his lower lip. He also felt the weight of the sleeping child in his arms, and was very content with the feeling. He loved being able to hold his daughter, to know that a miracle could be tangible and able to be held; the miracle of her existence, and that she was still alive for them to cherish. The burden of always holding the growing baby was finally lifted from Scully, and she let the exhaustion drain out of her weary muscles.  
  
"Want to spend the night out here?" Her voice came, softly as her calm.  
  
"Sure."  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"I like the new apartment," Scully added. "But it's still almost as crowded as the bungalow. Besides...I love the fact that we're able to see all the stars."  
  
Mulder looked up at the stars with this statement. They were brilliant against the velvet indigo of the sky, burning with the fires of those who had died...and those who were still living. "Yes...it has been awhile since we've been able to see the stars."  
  
Scully glanced up at Mulder's face, lost deep in the realms of his thoughts. "You're afraid They'll come back."  
  
"Oh, They will," Mulder said with tired certainty. "They may have lost now...but They'll come back, and with more weapons, more ships, more destruction..."  
  
Scully pulled herself up so that her face was next to his, and their lips were just inches apart. She ran her fingers through Hope's dark hair, fueling her contentment with the feel of their sleeping daughter. "They're gone now...all of Them. There's not a single Argothian left on this planet. Even if they do come back, we still have this world, and all the worlds beyond...and ourselves."  
  
Mulder brought his gaze from the stars to Scully's face. He felt his own expression rise into a smile...he couldn't help but smile when looking into Scully's hopeful eyes; seeing all the universe concentrate itself into her simple blue irises.  
  
"I'd like to go back to that cabin again..." He finally said. "And stay there for a really long time. When things become quieter...then we'll stay up all night and just look at stars."  
  
"We'll stay up all night, but we won't be looking at stars," She grinned.  
  
"Not even if I tell you which ones have planets with intelligent life?" He joked back.  
  
"You and I both know that things won't become any quieter around here for an extremely long time..." She said with a sigh. "This world is going to go through a radical transformation. We're part of a universal community now...we are open to endless possibilities and problems. Our government, our economy, our technology, our lifestyles, our perceptions of life and God and the universe will undergo extreme revision. And like it or not, we're right in the middle of it...being the ones with a child whose blood saved mankind, the main communication link between the Human race and all other races, and being the object of worship of the Revirans."  
  
"Saturday it is, then," Mulder said with warmth in his voice. "We'll leave for the cabin on Saturday."  
  
Scully just shook her head slowly, and continued to run her hands through Hope's hair. She knew her daughter would never grow up "normal," but she also know that she would grow up with family and friends that loved her immensely, and would support her through whatever trials she would face.  
  
Their attention was caught by a glowing object moving across the grass in their direction, moving as a living being. "Hey, Tho!" Mulder called cheerfully as the Bleebeean came up to them, illuminating their faces with pale purple light. She brightened and flashed some message to them.  
  
"Do you know what she said?" Scully asked.  
  
Mulder shook his head. "I decided I'm going to try and learn the light language...Havenamy told me that she was appalled that Humans didn't know it."  
  
Tho moved away from them and then turned around again, indicating that she wanted them to follow her. After a moment, both Mulder and Scully carefully stood. Hope moved in Mulder's arms and yawned.  
  
"I suppose this is Doggett's way of telling us we need to come down and participate in the festivities..." Scully said, following Hope's example with her own yawn. "Guess we should give in."  
  
"Oh, I'm fine with a celebration barbecue with people that worship me any day," Mulder replied with a wink.  
  
Together, the three firebirds started down towards the glowing lights of the celebration in the city, reveling in the comfort of their own warm wings.  
  
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  
THE END %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 


End file.
